Meaning
Literally, the first to pass the finishing post or reach a goal. Its dominant use names the electoral system, standard in Britain and much of the Commonwealth, in which the candidate with the most votes wins outright, with no run-off or preference transfers, even without an absolute majority. It also serves as a general metaphor for whoever gets somewhere first, ahead of all rivals. Hyphenate when attributive (a first-past-the-post system) and abbreviate as FPTP after first use. The system long predates the name in Britain, and the metaphor is technically inaccurate since no fixed post exists - the winner needs only one vote more than the runner-up. Regional use: The electoral sense is British and Commonwealth; the phrase itself was coined in Australian and New Zealand newspapers.
Origin
A horse-racing metaphor: the winner is the first horse past the finishing post. The voting-system sense is younger than often assumed, and is not a British coinage. Research collected by Word Histories traces it to Australia and New Zealand: a literal racing use appears in Hobart's Daily Post of 16 June 1910; the Labor MP Ernest Alfred Roberts used it politically at a meeting of 6 August 1911, reported the next day in Adelaide's Daily Herald; the earliest voting-system use found is Melbourne's Herald of 29 January 1913, quoting minister King O'Malley - 'I like the system of electing the first man past the post, regardless of majorities or minorities' - and the earliest attributive, hyphenated use is Sydney's Daily Telegraph of 13 May 1914, on New Zealand restoring 'the old first-past-the-post system' by repealing the second ballot. Wikipedia adds that academics call the rule plurality voting or FPP. No earlier British name for the system appears in the verified record: Britain used the method for centuries, but the racing label is a twentieth-century import, and the metaphor is loose because there is no fixed post - one vote more than the runner-up suffices.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- first past the winning post
- FPTP
Usage Examples
- Under first past the post, the MP is elected with a simple plurality, however small the margin.
- The by-election was won under first past the post with just 34 percent of the vote.
- In the sales contest, whoever lands the first major client will be first past the post.