First come, first served

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Meaning

People are dealt with in the order in which they arrive or apply. Often used attributively before basis, with or without hyphens depending on house style. Regional use: Middle English proverbial ancestry; now widespread.

Origin

Chaucer's Wife of Bath uses a miller's rule: whoever first comes to the mill first grinds. Medieval mills naturally operated by arrival order, and the line became a durable proverb. The compact passive wording is early modern rather than late sixteenth-century: Henry Brinklow's Complaynt of Roderyck Mors has First come first serued by 1545. The modern phrase is therefore a genuine modernization of a medieval English rule, not a verbatim Chaucer quotation.

Research Sources

  1. Harvard Chaucer: The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale Harvard University
  2. World English Historical Dictionary: first World English Historical Dictionary
  3. Merriam-Webster: first come, first served Merriam-Webster

Variants

  • First to the mill, first to grind

Usage Examples

  • The free seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • There are no reservations; it is first come, first served.
  • Workshop places will be offered first come, first served.

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