Впервые or впервыя (in old orthography)?

Question

In pre-1918 Russian orhography, female and neuter adjectives in pl. nom. had endings -iя, -ыя: новыя вещи, голубыя озёра, but новые наряды, голубые киты.

Pluralia tantum require some etymologic background to put the adjective in right gender: острыя ножницы, новыя сѣни but французскiе духи.

Adverbs originated from adjectives follow this rule too, however the noun the were governed by is usually lost.

I'm interested in adverb впервые. It is clearly originated from the phrase в первые … with some noun, but I failed to find its etymology.

Google Books search suggests 55 entries with впервыя and 123 entries with впервые between 1870 and 1916.

So I wonder: what was the right form of the adverb впервые (or its etymology)?

well, we still have в первый раз expression, which is more common and has roughly the same meaning. — permeakra, Sep 05 '12 at 20:28
Searching Google books for both words finds 24 items, suggesting that the words were interchangeable, at least for some time. — Sergey Kalinichenko, Sep 05 '12 at 21:45
And how it would be used with 1st plural pronoun "мы"? "мы первыя" or "мы первые"? — Anixx, Sep 08 '12 at 23:23
@Anixx: if мы only included females, it would be мы первыя, otherwise мы первые. In 3rd pl., the pronoun would change too: они первые (male or mixed) vs. онѣ первыя (female only) — Quassnoi, Sep 09 '12 at 10:26
@Quassnoi I suspect that впервые could be derived from a form similar to "превратительный падеж", like "принять в солдаты", "избрать в президенты". — Anixx, Sep 09 '12 at 10:49
@Anixx: form of which word? первый or первая? — Quassnoi, Sep 09 '12 at 11:35
I, too, am curious. Just FYI, вещи is not spelled with a ѣ. — , Nov 05 '15 at 12:53
@GregoryLevitsky I'm pretty sure it is spelled with a ѣ, or at least should be historically. It's věci, not **veci*, in Czech. — Nikolay Ershov, Nov 05 '15 at 14:43
@NikolayErshov "Слово вещь по естеству своему вѣщь; но древнія невѣжи Ѣ въ Е превратили; такъ уже етому и быть." Сумароков. Примечание о правописании — Matt, Nov 05 '15 at 16:50
@GregoryLevitsky: you're right, though it's not etymologically sound, as the others have mentioned. — Quassnoi, Nov 05 '15 at 18:29
@NikolayErshov It seems that only in dictionaries they consistently wrote "вещь". Ordinary people misspelt this word throughout the whole 19th century. — Matt, Nov 06 '15 at 07:29

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 05 '15 at 15:20

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Положим, что ткну пальцем в небо, но всё же рискну предположить, что впервые это всего лишь в первые [ряды], по аналогии с вперворяд, вдругорядь и т.д.

Если же учесть и форму женского рода рядь (есть у Даля), то становится возможным и впервыя.

answered Nov 05 '15 at 15:20

Matt

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Ну, это довольно смелое предположение если честно, но остроумное ) – shabunc Nov 05 '15 at 21:23

Olga · Answer 2 · 2012-09-06T08:36:07.690

I don't know the answer to your question, but I have a hypothesis you may want to consider.

Maybe there was no noun in "впервые", maybe it was a combination of the preposition "въ" and the word "пьрво"?

I've looked for examples in Sreznevsky's dictionary (compiled in the end of XIX, made on the base of writings dating XVI century or earlier). And here is what I found.

The dictionary tells that the preposition въ could be used to designate that something happened in some time, and here comes one of the examples:

А татя в первые продати противу поличного, а въ другiе уличатъ, продадутъ его не жалуя, а уличатъ въ третьие ино повѣсити. Уставная грамота великого князя Василия Дмитриевича двинянам, 1397г.

Since it is an example from a preposition's entry, I think that "впервые" might have developed from a combination of the preposition "въ" and the noun "пьрво".

I haven't found any noun "пьрво" in the dictionary, there was only an adverb "пьрво = перво" that meant "раньше, прежде". However, I've found another example in the entry about "въ". I believe, "пьрво" acts as a noun there:

Въ том градѣ иже в то перво столникъ и игуменъ Iеванъ въсхотѣ сътворити гистерноу. Житие преподобного Федора, игумена Сикейского монастыря, XVI век.

However, it is not clear what is the meaning of "перво" here. Something like "(earlier) time", maybe. Or it might be just the first part of the word "первостолникъ", written separately. But in this case I don't know how to translate "въ то". Can it be "тогда"?

It could of course originate from a noun, but in your exceprt from Двинская правда it's certainly a full form adjective, with some other noun omitted. I wonder what could it be. — Quassnoi, Sep 08 '12 at 10:15
I don't think that I can find the whole text of Двинская Правда. — Olga, Sep 08 '12 at 11:57
http://books.google.ru/books?printsec=frontcover&id=5xXUAAAAMAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false , page 8 — Quassnoi, Sep 08 '12 at 19:18
In your source, впервые, въдругiе and вътретьие are clearly written together and there is no previous context that can explain these as adjectives. Which means that they probably were adverbs already back then. — Olga, Sep 08 '12 at 20:04

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '15 at 07:17

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All you need is just to find some pre-reform sources, and better to find some scan copies. For example here or a least re-typed books like here

In this PDF document (from the 2nd mentioned source) we can find a word "впервые"

Вы мыслить и писать затѣяли впервые
Съ Бѣлинскимъ: до него былъ вамъ дремучій мракъ.
Прекрасно! У меня жъ учители другіе,
И до него еще я мыслилъ кое-какъ.
...
П.А. Вяземский 1861

answered Nov 06 '15 at 07:17

Roman

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As it was pointed earlier, both spellings "впервые" and "впервыя" were acceptable in 19th century. The question is what the reason behind that. – Matt Nov 06 '15 at 07:26
@user4419802 Hm.. in this case I guess there was just one reason, the same one as today: "договоры" or "договора", "профессоры" or "профессора" or, say, "мой кофе" or "моё кофе" :) – Roman Nov 06 '15 at 07:33

Впервые or впервыя (in old orthography)?

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