Meaning
Literally, the foremost line or position of an army - the troops closest to the enemy and furthest from safety. Figuratively, the front line is the most exposed, demanding or advanced position in any field: nurses and frontline workers in a pandemic, teachers in a funding fight, or anyone standing at the point where an organization, movement or debate meets its crisis. Frontline as one word now dominates the adjective and worker uses. Do not conflate with this site's front runner entry, which is racing and politics. In modern asymmetric warfare the term has loosened to mean anywhere under fire. Regional use: English worldwide.
Origin
Front line is a native English compound. The OED's earliest evidence is military and far older than trench warfare: 1677, Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery's Treatise of the Art of War - verified directly - with the phrase surging in the First World War. Yet the figurative use predates that war: the OED's first citation is from 1897, the lady who likes to keep in the front line of fashion, under a sense covering the forefront of new developments or the centre of a debate. The adjective dates from 1914, and the OED's earliest citation for front line worker is 1919 - a Bridgeport paper describing suffrage front line workers - decades before the COVID-era boom. Related forms: frontliner of 1895 and frontline state of 1947. Note: Wikipedia's claim that the term first appeared in the 1520s disagrees with the OED's verifiable 1677 quotation evidence, and the disagreement is reported rather than reconciled.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- frontline
- frontliner
- on the front line
Usage Examples
- Nurses on the front line met the first wave of infections with dwindling supplies.
- He spent twenty years on the front line of the patent wars between the tech giants.
- Call-center staff found themselves on the front line of the bank's new complaints system.