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premise

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English premisse,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman premisse and Old French premisse,[4][5] recorded in Old French as a term of logic from 1310,[4][6] from Medieval Latin praemissa (“(the proposition) set in front”), with prōpositiō understood.[2][7][8] This is the feminine past participle of praemittō (“to send ahead, put before”),[2][7] formed from prae- (“before”) and mittō (“to send”).[2][9] The legal sense of the plural goes back to the neuter plural of the participle.[10] The verb is from the noun,[4][8] and according to Merriam-Webster partly from premis, the past participle of premetre (“to place ahead”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In logic, a proposition from which another follows: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, according to Barnhart;[5] the OED's first quotation is from Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1398).[4]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a term of logic.[9][7] In legal documents, from 1429, the premises were the matters already stated, which let a deed avoid repeating the conditions or items it had listed, much like aforesaid;[4][11] from 1464 it meant the houses, lands or tenements named in a conveyance, and by 1610 more broadly a building with its grounds, especially one housing a business.[4] A sense "previous events", in Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII (1623), died out.[4] The verb meant to state by way of introduction from about 1450, and in Shakespeare to send before the expected time;[4][12] the US sense "to base an argument or plan on an assumption", usually in the passive, dates from 1881.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1380 – a proposition in logic, in Chaucer.[5]
  • 1429 – premises, matters stated earlier in a document.[4]
  • c. 1450 – verb: to state by way of introduction.[4]
  • 1464 – premises, the property named in a deed.[4]
  • 1610 – premises, a building with its grounds.[4]
  • 1665 – verb: to take as a premise.[4]
  • 1881 – verb: to base on an assumption (US).[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (logic) A statement taken as true, from which a conclusion is drawn.
  2. An assumption on which an argument, plan or story rests.
  3. (plural) A building with its land, especially one used by a business: No dogs may be kept on the premises.
  4. (law, plural) The matters stated earlier in a deed.

Verb

  1. To base an argument or plan on something, usually in the passive: The plan was premised on rising sales.
  2. To state something as an introduction or as a premise.

Word family

  • major premise
  • minor premise

Usage notes

In logic, British English also spells the noun premiss, and the SOED gives this as the usual form in that sense.[13][8] The verb is pronounced like the noun or with a stressed final syllable, /prɪˈmaɪz/.[13][4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins