'first-hand' originates from English, specifically a compound of the words 'first' and 'hand', where 'first' comes from Old English 'fyrst' meaning 'foremost' and 'hand' comes from Old English 'hand' meaning 'hand'.

'first-hand' developed in late Middle/early Modern English as the compound phrase 'first hand' (meaning from the nearest or original hand/source) and later became commonly written with a hyphen as 'first-hand'.

Initially it meant literally 'from the first hand' (i.e., from the original person or source); over time it came to be used more generally to mean 'directly' or 'from personal experience', which is its current common usage.