first hand
A. adv. phr. at first hand (also at first-hand): From the first source or origin, without intermediate agency or the intervention of a medium; direct from the maker, producer, or original vendor. Also with at omitted.
| 1732 Fielding Miser i. vii, All bought at the first hand too. 1811 Sporting Mag. XXXVII. 76 Gave ninety guineas for that, which he might have purchased at first hand for five-and-forty. 1840 Carlyle Heroes (1858) 219 Such a man is what we call an original man; he comes to us at first-hand. 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. xxiv, Asking Phil Squod..what it [the rifle] might be worth, first-hand. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. viii. (1875) 337 Matters we cannot well know at first-hand. |
B. adj. (first-hand). Of or belonging to the first source, original; coming direct from the first source and not through an intermediate channel or agency; obtained direct from the producer or original vendor.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. 338 Second-hand messengers, and first-hand insults. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 31 Dr. Pauli's study of first-hand sources gives..a correctness to his language, which [etc.]. 1871 R. H. Hutton Ess. (1877) I. 83 What knowledge you have of such beings is not direct, not first-hand at all. 1890 Spectator 31 May 765/1 The author has had access to some first-hand information. |