primo

Forms

primo (feminine prima, masculine plural primi, feminine plural prime, superlative primissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prīmus (“first”), the superlative of the old adverb prī (“before”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word comes from an older ⟨*prīsmos⟩, attested in Paelignian ⟨prismu⟩.^[3][5] Nocentini compares the adverb with Ancient Greek πρίν (prín, “before”) and Lithuanian ⟨priẽ⟩ “near”, and Wiktionary connects it with Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, in front”) and with the comparative prior (“earlier”).^[3][1]

The word is pan-Romance, but in Gallo- and Ibero-Romance it took special senses: Occitan prim “excellent”, Catalan prim “thin, fine”, Spanish primo “cousin”, while French prime survives only in phrases; there prīmārius took its place, giving French premier, Catalan primer, Spanish primero, Portuguese primeiro and Old Italian primaio.^[3] Romanian prim keeps the plain sense.^[3]

Many learned derivatives came from Latin, such as primario, primate, primitivo, primizia and primogenito.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is a Veronese document of about 1205, where primo is the ordinal “first in a series”.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word for “chief, fundamental” before 1321.^[2] The feminine prima used as an adverb, “before, earlier”, is in the Breve di Montieri of 1219.^[2] In measurement, minuto primo “minute of time” is in Galileo (1630–1631), and the noun primo alone for a minute is recorded in 1958; the sixtieth of a degree was so called before 1572.^[2]

French models gave prima “first night of a play” (1814), a calque of première, and di prim'ordine “first-rate”, after de premier ordre.^[2] Primato was proposed in 1929 by F. Corsi to replace the English record, and its use by the Air Ministry settled it.^[2] In the kitchen primo is short for primo piatto “first course”.^[1]

Music carried the word abroad: primo tenore is recorded in 1584, and English took primo in names such as primo uomo and primo buffo from 1740, German from 1838.^[7][8]

Timeline

• c. 1205 – A Veronese document uses primo as an ordinal.^[2][6]
• 1219 – The Breve di Montieri uses prima as an adverb.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses primo for “chief, fundamental”.^[2]
• 1584 – Primo tenore is recorded.^[7]
• 1630–1631 – Galileo uses minuto primo.^[2]
• 1740 – English takes primo in musical terms.^[7][8]
• 1814 – Prima “first night” is recorded.^[2]
• 1929 – Primato is proposed in place of record.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. first, coming before all others in a series, in time or in space: È la prima volta che vengo qui.^[6][9][4][1]
2. After the name of a ruler or pope, written I, the first of that name: Ferdinando I.^[6][9][4]
3. Initial, early, belonging to the beginning of something: nei primi anni del Novecento.^[6][4][1]
4. Chief, principal, first in importance or rank: il primo attore, materia prima, raw material.^[6][2][1]
5. (mathematics) prime, of a number divisible only by itself and one.^[1]

Noun

1. The first one; of two things already named, the former.^[6][1]
2. (cooking) The first course of a meal, usually pasta, rice or soup.^[1]
3. A minute, the sixtieth part of an hour or of a degree.^[2][10]

Word family

• prima
• dapprima
• primeggiare
• primattore
• primaticcio
• primissimo
• primino

Related words

• primario
• primate
• primato
• primavera
• primitivo
• primizia
• primogenito
• primordiale
• primordio
• primula
• Latin primus

Usage notes

After per it often means “first, before the others”: è arrivato per primo.^[9][4] DEI records a nautical primo for the keel of a boat (1604), with southern dialect forms, perhaps influenced by Byzantine Greek prýmna “stern”.^[10] Primo is also a man's name, once given to a first-born son.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3081