* Language Evolves: Languages change over time, with new words being introduced and old ones fading away.
* No Written Record: The earliest forms of English, like Old English, were mostly spoken, not written. We have some surviving texts, but they don't represent the entirety of the language.
* Proto-Indo-European: English ultimately evolved from Proto-Indo-European, a language spoken thousands of years ago. We can reconstruct some of its vocabulary, but it wouldn't be the same as the first "English" word.
Instead of a "first word," it's more accurate to think about the origins of the language and how it developed over centuries.