primus

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

• 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 motor

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

• purism

From earlier prīsmos, from Proto-Italic *priisemos, a superlative form of the obsolete preposition *pri ~ *prei, related to prae (“before”) (see -issimus for the superlative), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“before”). Compare prior (“earlier, in front”), the corresponding comparative. Cognate of Oscan promom, Umbrian promom (“first”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpriː.mus/, [ˈpriːmʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpri.mus/, [ˈpriːmus]

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

1. first, early
   • 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”)

• Insular romance:
  • Sardinian: primmu, primu
• Eastern Romance:
  • Romanian: prim
  • Istriot: preîmo
• Italo-dalmatian:
  • Dalmatian: prein
  • Neapolitan: prime
    • Tarantino: prime
  • Sicilian: primu
  • Italian: primo, 1º m, 1ª f; I
    • → English: primo
    • Gallo-Italic:
  • Emilian: premm
  • Ligurian: primmo
  • Lombard: primm, prumm
  • Piedmontese: prim, prum
  • Romagnol: prèm
• Venetian: primo
• Gallo-romance:
  • Old French: prim, prime
    • French: prime
  • → Middle English: prime
    • English: prime
    • Scots: prime
• Ibero-romance:
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: primu
  • Old Spanish: primo
    • Spanish: primo
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: primo
    • Portuguese: primo
• Occitano-romance:
  • Old Occitan:
    • Catalan: prim
    • Occitan: prim
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: prin
  • Ladin: prim, prum
  • Romansch: emprim, emprem, amprem, prüm
• → English: primus
• → Old Irish: prím, prím-
  • Irish: príomh-
  • Manx: preeu-
  • Scottish Gaelic: prìomh-
• → Proto-Brythonic: *priβ̃
  • Welsh: prif

• 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’s 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, 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 (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, 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