Etymologically
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primoris

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [priːˈmoː.rɪs], [priːˈmoː.riːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [priˈmɔː.ris], [priˈmɔː.ris][1]

Forms

prīmōris (genitive prīmōris); third-declension one-termination adjective[1] The nominative singular is not in use; the word is mostly plural, prīmōrēs.[2][1]

Etymology

It is formed from prīmus (“first”).[3][1][4] De Vaan lists it with prīmus among the derivatives of an adverb Proto-Italic *pri (“before”), whose superlative *prī̆-isamo- gave prīmus; he connects it with Ancient Greek πρίν (prín, “before”) and Lithuanian priẽ (“at, with”), but calls its Indo-European ancestry uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Bacchides: “so you picked this up with the tips of two little fingers?”[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It means first in position or nearest: Cato has the nearer part of the Pyrenees, Pliny the Elder front teeth, and prīmōrēs digitī are fingertips.[3][2] Cato also uses it of the extremity or tip of something.[3] It is also first in time, as Varro's first rains, and in Lucretius elementary.[3] Of people it means of high rank: Turpilius has leading men as friends, and in the masculine plural the prīmōrēs are the front ranks of an army or the leading men of a state, as in Livy.[3] In Medieval Latin the prīmōrēs are the great men of a kingdom or the notables of a place.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of fingertips.[3][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of the nearer part of the Pyrenees.[3][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of the leading men of a state.[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. First in position, foremost, nearest; the front or tip of something.[3][2][1]
  2. First in time, earliest.[3][1]
  3. Of people, of high rank, leading, chief.[3][1]
  4. Elementary, basic.[3]

Noun

  1. (in the masculine plural) The front ranks of an army.[3]
  2. (in the masculine plural) The leading men, notables; in Medieval Latin, the great men of a kingdom.[3][6]

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes prīmōrēs, eminent through connections, birth, power and credit, from prīncipēs, who lead by intellect and activity, procerēs, noble by natural position, and optimātēs, the aristocracy as a political class.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e 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
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper