primus

From Latin prīmus (“[the] first”); related to prior, the comparative form. Partially cognate to foremost, from Proto-Indo-European [Term?]. Doublet of prime and primo.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪməs/
• Rhymes: -aɪməs

primus (plural primuses)

1. One of the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church, who presides at the meetings of the bishops, and has certain privileges but no metropolitan authority.
   • 1884, Gonzalo Canilla, speech at the Centenary of the consecration of Samuel Seabury

     my own grandfather, some time Bishop of Edinburgh, among its Primuses

• primus-ship

• primus motor
• primus inter pares
• primate

• “primus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• purism

From earlier prīsmos, from Proto-Italic *priismos, a superlative form (see -issimus) of the obsolete preposition *pri ~ *prei, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *préy, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, in front”). Compare prior (“earlier, in front”), the corresponding comparative. Cognate of Oscan promom, Umbrian promom (“first”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpriː.mʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpriː.mus]

prīmus (feminine prīma, neuter prīmum, adverb prīmō); first/second-declension adjective

1. first, early

   Antonym: ultimus

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.2–4:

     […] dī, coeptīs (nam vōs mūtāstis et illa)
     adspīrāte meīs prīmāque ab orīgine mundī
     ad mea perpetuum dēdūcite tempora carmen!

     O gods, favor my undertakings (for you have changed them too), and lead my uninterrupted song down from the first origin of the world to my times!

First/second-declension adjective.

Descendants which mean "cousin" derive from the ellipsis of cōnsobrīnus prīmus (“first cousin”)

• prima materia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Primum Mobile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• primum movens on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• primum non nocere on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• “primus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “primus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "primus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “primus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to have a superficial knowledge, a smattering of literature, of the sciences: primis (ut dicitur) or primoribus labris gustare or attingere litteras
    
  • to receive the first elements of a liberal education: primis litterarum elementis imbui
    
  • the actor who plays the leading part: actor primarum (secundarum, tertiarum) partium
    
  • to give the palm, the first place (for wisdom) to some one: primas (e.g. sapientiae) alicui deferre, tribuere, concedere
    
  • (ambiguous) at the first opportunity: primo quoque tempore
    
  • (ambiguous) at the beginning of spring: ineunte, primo vere
    
  • (ambiguous) we start by presupposing that..: positum est a nobis primum (c. Acc. c. Inf.)
    
  • (ambiguous) to be considered the foremost orator: primum or principem inter oratores locum obtinere
    
  • (ambiguous) to occupy the first, second position in the state: principem (primum), secundum locum dignitatis obtinere
    
  • (ambiguous) the vanguard: agmen primum
    
• “primus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• primus in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “primus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 488

Borrowed from German Primus.

primus n (plural primusuri)

1. kerosene stove