primitus

Forms

prīmitus (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prīmus (“first”) + -itus, an adverb in ⟨-itus⟩.^[2][3][1][4] Nonius quotes a parallel adverb ⟨prīmiter⟩ from Lucilius.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD date it from Lucilius, who uses it of someone selling a few figs at first at a huge price.^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means at first, to begin with, and for the first time or originally, as when Varro speaks of children first beginning to talk.^[2][6] Lewis & Short call it ante- and post-classical and poetic,^[6] and the TLL finds it only once or twice in each of its authors, among them Lucretius, Varro, the Ciris, the Priapea, Petronius, Suetonius and Gellius.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it was common in the sense “first of all, in the first place”,^[7][8] with the phrases prīmitus … quam “before” and ā prīmitus “from the outset”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it in the sense “at first”.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in the sense “for the first time”.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it.^[3][9][5]
• Medieval Latin – Common in the sense “first of all”.^[7][8]

Meanings

Adverb

1. At first, to begin with.^[2][9]
2. For the first time, originally.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) First of all, in the first place;^[7] prīmitus … quam, before;^[7] ā prīmitus, from the outset.^[7]

Related words

• prīmum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier