primero

Forms

primero (masculine singular before a noun primer, feminine primera, masculine plural primeros, feminine plural primeras)^[1] Before a masculine singular noun it is shortened to primer (el primer día); the short form was at first used only for the masculine.^[2][3][1] Galician has primeiro beside the dialect forms promeiro and pormeiro.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish primero, inherited from Latin prīmārius (“of the first rank, chief”).^[2][5][6][1] In the Hispanic and Gallo-Romance languages and part of Rhaeto-Romance it replaced prīmus (“first”), which in Spanish lives on only in secondary senses, in primo “excellent” and “cousin”.^[2] The Old Spanish adverb primas (“for the first time”), in the Auto de los Reyes Magos, shows that primo (“first”) still existed before the literary period.^[2] Its learned doublet is primario.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese primeiro, Galician primeiro, Catalan primer and French premier.^[7][4] The French word, first recorded as primers about 980, was borrowed as Italian primiero.^[8][7]

The Latin adjective is formed from the older word for “first” and the suffix -ārius.^[1][9] The Latin word is an old superlative, from *prīzmos, built on an obsolete preposition *pri (“before”), which Wiktionary traces, with some doubt, to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, in front”); the comparative is prior.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) both as an ordinal adjective, already with the short form in el primer colpe “the first blow”, and as an adverb of time.^[10][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for what comes before the rest in order or rank (la primera uertud “the first power”, of God), for “former, original”, as an adverb “at first”, and in de primero “at first, formerly”.^[11] Nebrija's 1513 vocabulary pairs primero with principal and Latin princeps, and Percyvall (1591) glosses it “the first, the chiefest”.^[12][13] Autoridades (1737) defines it as the number from which one begins to count, then “chief in rank” and “excellent, outstanding”.^[14]

The Academy's 1817 edition records the adverb in the sense “rather, sooner”, used to set one course against another, and the phrase de buenas a primeras “straight away, without more ado”.^[15] The feminine primera became a noun for an old card game, which an English traveller in Mexico, Thomas Gage, mentions in 1648, and today for first gear.^[16][6] Primeriza, a woman who gives birth for the first time, goes back to Berceo.^[2]

In the Dominican Republic el primero is also the first day of the month.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has primero and primer.^[10][5]
• 1250–1279 – the Lapidario uses it as an adjective and as an adverb.^[11]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin princeps.^[12]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, at Nombre de Dios: el primero navío.^[18]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “the first, the chiefest”.^[13]
• c. 1640 – the learned doublet primario.^[2][5]
• 1648 – Thomas Gage mentions the card game primera.^[16]
• 1737 – Autoridades gives the ordinal and the senses “chief” and “excellent”.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy records de buenas a primeras.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin primarius.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. first: coming before all the others of its kind in order, time, place, position, class or rank; also as a noun: Mi hermana terminó la primera.^[6][1]
2. Excellent, outstanding, better than the rest: Es la primera figura del equipo.^[6][20]
3. Earlier, original, former: Volvió a su idea primera.^[6]
4. (of days of the month, also as a noun) The first: el primero de junio.^[6][17]

Noun

1. primera (feminine): first gear of a vehicle.^[6]
2. primera (feminine): an old card game in which the cards had values other than their own.^[6]

Adverb

1. Firstly, first of all, before anything else: Primero lava la fruta.^[6][1]
2. Rather, sooner, in preference, setting one course against another: Primero me quedo en casa que ir con él.^[6][20]

Word family

• primeramente
• primerizo
• primer

Related words

• primo
• primario
• Latin prīmus
• Portuguese primeiro

Usage notes

A primeros or a primeros de means “in the first days (of a month or other period)”: Cobro a primeros de mes.^[6][20] De primero “at first, previously” is old: Alfonso X and the Calila already use it.^[2][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 648
3. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 612
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5219
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. primo
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. primero
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. premier
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 401
11. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. primero
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 400
13. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 194
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 377
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 703
16. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. primero
17. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. primero
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. primero
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 864
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. primero