first vs from the ground up

first

adv
  • Before anything else; firstly. 

  • For the first time. 

  • Now. 

noun
  • first base 

  • A first-edition copy of some publication. 

  • A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1. 

  • The first gear of an engine. 

  • Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence. 

  • A first-class honours degree. 

  • The person or thing in the first position. 

adj
  • Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest. 

  • Of or belonging to a first family. 

  • Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest. 

from the ground up

adv
  • From the beginning; starting with the basics, foundation, or fundamentals. 

How often have the words first and from the ground up occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )