Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bearpecs AT aol.com]

I'll need to check some references (I think Speiser addresses this), but my 
off-hand recollection is that using the cardinal number "one" in an ordinal 
sense ("first") when it's in the context of a list is known in other Semitic 
languages. (Anyone have the Ugaritic handbook handy?)

Cf. English: "He's been on this email list since Day One" means "He's been on 
this email list since the first day."  It does not mean "He's been on this 
emmail list since one day."