meaning of 'ever' in the song of "First time ever I saw your face"

[Winwin2011]

"The first time ever I saw your face" is one of my favourite songs. I looked up the meaning of 'ever' in several dictionaries. However,I could not find an appropiate meaning.

Could anybody help?Thanks.

 

[bhaisahab]

"The first time ever I saw your face" is one of my favourite songs. I looked up the meaning of 'ever' in several dictionaries. However,I could not find an appropiate meaning.

Could anybody help?Thanks.

See the first definition in this link: ever adverb (AT ANY TIME) - definition in British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionary Online

 

[emsr2d2]

"The first time ever I saw your face" is one of my favourite songs. I looked up the meaning of 'ever' in several dictionaries. However,I could find an appropiate meaning.

Could anybody help?Thanks.

The word order in that song is quite unusual (as is the case with many song lyrics). The "ever" would normally appear between the person and the verb so if this were not a line in a song, it would be "The first time I ever saw your face". To be honest, in that construction "ever" is actually redundant as "The first time I saw your face" means exactly the same thing. However, you will hear "ever" to mean "never/not at any point in time/history" almost as an intensifier.

This is the first time I have skied = This is the first time I have ever skied.

Occasionally, though, it does add to the meaning. For example:

"That was the first song I heard on the radio" could mean "the first song I heard on the radio this morning" or "the first song I heard on the radio after I moved to Spain". More information would be needed to get the correct meaning. However, "That was the first song I ever heard on the radio" only means one thing. It means that the first time in your whole life that you heard a song being played via the medium of radio, it was that song. You had never heard a song on the radio before you heard that song on the radio.