imprimis

Forms

imprīmīs (not comparable)^[1] It is also spelled inprīmīs and is often written as two words, in prīmīs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in (“in”) + prīmus (“first”), originally the phrase ⟨in prīmīs⟩ with the ablative plural of the adjective.^[2][4] De Vaan explains prīmus as a superlative, Proto-Italic *prī̆-isamo- (“first”), built on an adverb meaning “before” that he traces to Proto-Indo-European *pr(e)i (“before”), though he calls its Indo-European ancestry uncertain; he compares Paelignian prismu, a feminine first name, and Ancient Greek πρίν (prín, “before”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotation in the OLD is in Lucilius, who writes of something he understands the addressee wants above all to obtain.^[2] Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means more than any other, especially, above all.^[2][3] It often introduces the chief member of a group, as when Cicero asks Atticus to write him everything, and above all whether the courts are in trouble.^[2] It also marks the first item in a series or the first stage of a process, “first, to begin with”: Cicero writes that one must either keep to the order of events or tell the most recent first.^[2] Church Latin glosses it first of all, chiefly, especially.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius, “above all”.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the chief point of a request and of the first item in an order.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Above all, especially, in particular.^[2][3][1]
2. First, to begin with, firstly.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• prīmus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill