first mover
nounEtymology The business sense bears connotations of the earliest moves in a game such as chess or checkers (for example, a gambit).
1
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences The initial agent that is the cause of all things; the prime mover.
- The chiefeſt God firſt moouer of that Spheare, Enchac’d with thouſands euer ſhining lamps, Will ſooner burne the glorious frame of Heauen, Then ſhould it ſo conſpire my ouerthrow.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene ii:
2
Business An early player in a market, such as the first company to commercialize a newly developed technology.
- Derived terms
- first-mover disadvantage