first papers

American  

plural noun

Informal.

1. an official declaration of intention filed by a resident alien desiring to become a U.S. citizen: not required by law after 1952.

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Etymology

Origin of first papers

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economist, has known Summers since graduate school and coauthored one of the first papers Summers published in an academic journal.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

In 2006 and 2007, evolutionary geneticist David Begun at the University of California, Davis, published what many regard as the first papers to make the case for particular genes arising de novo in fruit flies3,4.

From Nature • Oct. 15, 2019

Ankita Patnaik, an economist at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington DC, authored one of the first papers studying QPIP.

From The Guardian • Jun. 15, 2018

This was the same journal where Bem had published one of the first papers of his career, way back in 1965.

From Slate • May 17, 2017

One of the first papers laid before him was a memorial in behalf of the oppressed Quakers in New England.

From The Beginnings of New England Or the Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty by Fiske, John