Just for fun I was going to say the first word was eDigital! And of course your question makes me also wonder what will be the last word and who will have it. ( That is an interesting study of and in itself. ) Having said all that, words are just tools to convey an idea. Someday perhaps people will easily read minds more than the few that can do it now ( hey, I live in LA. ) but until then humans use words. Did words come before symbols? Words spoken, then written, printing presses, typewriters and phones, and now mobile phones, the internet and even the ethernet. Since none of us can go back to hear the first word ( at least not yet ) I will only offer that the first word was to convey an idea that had to do with being alive birth and motherhood. Without that there would be no words, IMO. And of course one last word in this reply, ``eDigital``.