primate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English primat,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French primat (“chief bishop of a province”) and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin prīmās (“chief bishop, church primate”),^[5][6][7] a noun use of a Latin adjective meaning "of the first rank, chief, excellent", recorded in Apuleius in the 2nd century AD and used as a noun for a leader in the 4th century and for a chief bishop in the same century.^[7] It is formed from prīmus (“first”) with the adjective suffix -ās,^[7][8] and the American Heritage Dictionary relates prīmus to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *per-.^[9] The zoological sense comes from New Latin Primates, the name of the order in Linnaeus's “Systema Naturae” (1758), a specific use of the plural of the Latin word;^[7][5][6] Barnhart allows that the English singular may also have been taken from French.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chief bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province: about 1275, in a manuscript of Laȝamon's Brut.^[7] Barnhart dates it probably before 1200, in the same poem,^[6] and Etymonline to about 1200.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a bishop with authority over the other bishops of a province;^[5][7] in medieval Latin the Archbishop of Canterbury was primas totius Anglie, primate of all England, and the Archbishop of York primas Anglie.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the chief ecclesiastick".^[10] From the 1380s it also meant anyone first in rank, a chief or leader, as in Trevisa's "This preost was primat in that lond of Madyan";^[7][11] this sense is now rare or archaic.^[7][2] The step to zoology was taken in Latin: Linnaeus called the order Primates because he regarded it as the "highest" order of mammals, the one that includes humans,^[5][7] and he first put the bats in it too, which Goldsmith remarked on in 1774: "This was a sufficient motive for Linnaeus to give it the title of a Primas, to rank it in the same order with mankind".^[7][5] English adopted the singular for one of these animals; the OED's first quotation is from 1772, in William Cullen,^[7] while Etymonline dates the sense to 1876 and Barnhart to 1898.^[5][6] From 1664 to 1747 a primate was also a variety of pear.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – the chief bishop or archbishop of a province.^[7] Barnhart dates it probably before 1200.^[6]
• c. 1384 – a person first in rank, a chief or leader.^[7]
• before 1425 – adjective, first, most important (obsolete by 1580).^[7]
• 1664 – a variety of pear (obsolete by 1747).^[7]
• 1758 – Linnaeus names the order Primates.^[7]
• 1772 – a mammal of the order Primates.^[7] Etymonline dates this sense to 1876.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mammal of the order Primates, which includes humans, apes, monkeys and lemurs, typically with grasping hands and a large brain: The zoo's new primate house holds gorillas and gibbons.^{[9][12][2][7]}
2. An archbishop, or the bishop who ranks first in a province or a nation.^{[2][9][7][13]}
3. (archaic) A person first in rank or authority; a leader.^[2][7]

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to the order Primates.^[12]
2. Principal, first in importance, as in primate city.^[2]

Word family

• primatial
• primateship
• primatal
• primatology

Related words

• prime
• primacy
• primary
• prince

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press