prim

Forms

prim m or n (feminine singular primă, masculine plural primi, feminine/neuter plural prime)^[1]

Etymology

In its modern use it is borrowed from Latin prīmus (“first”), with French prime as a second model in the DLR.^[2][3][4] Ciorănescu calls the modern senses a neologism, but thinks the word may also have been inherited, because it occurs in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1582 and survives in the Bihor phrase (îm)primă “first of all” and in Megleno-Romanian.^[5] The REW also lists this Romanian form, glossed “early, first”, among the inherited descendants of the Latin word.^[6] The southern form is Megleno-Romanian prima (“first, formerly”), an adverb.^[7][5]

The Latin word is a superlative, from Proto-Italic *prīzmos, and the OLD compares a Paelignian form, formed on an old preposition meaning “before”, and prior (“earlier”) is its comparative.^[1][8] Its inherited Romance descendants include Italian primo, Spanish primo “cousin” and Portuguese primo.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are adverbial phrases in the Palia de la Orăștie (1582): den primă “firstly, the first” and de-a prima “firstborn”, as in „Omorî-voi născutul tău de-a prima” “I will kill your firstborn” (Exodus 4:23), and the title „Cartea de prima lu Moisi” “the first book of Moses”.^[4][5] The adjective of the modern language is first recorded in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada (c. 1800–1812): „din prim început” “from the very beginning”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The old adverbial phrases did not spread: they survived only in the west, în primă “in good time” in Crișana and din primă “first” in Transylvania.^[4][10] The adjective was taken again from Latin by the scholars of the late 18th and 19th centuries, and Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has it in the Latinist spelling primŭ.^[3][11] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it with cel dintâi “the first”.^[12]

DEX gives the native întâi and dintâi as its synonyms, and the word has given a series of compound titles: prim-ministru “prime minister”, prim-secretar, prim-solist, prim-plan “close-up”.^[2][9] Under the communist dictatorship prim alone meant the first secretary of a county party committee.^[13]

Timeline

• 1582 – den primă and de-a prima in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[4][5]
• c. 1800–1812 – prim început in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada.^[3]
• 1848 – Negulici lists the adjective as a neologism.^[12]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary has primul venit “the first comer” and primul născut “the firstborn”.^[11]
• 1978 – prim- is entered as a combining form in the third edition of the Dicționar de neologisme.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (ordinal numeral, usually before the noun) first in space or time, at the head of a series: Primul tren pleacă la cinci., prima tinerețe “early youth”, materie primă “raw material”, prim-ajutor “first aid”, în primul rând “first of all”.^[2][1]
2. (colloquial, feminine used as an adverb) prima: first of all.^[2]
3. First in importance, rank or quality; principal: de prim rang “first-rate”, before a title, the highest of its kind: prim-ministru “prime minister”, prim-solist.^[2][9]
4. (music) Of instruments, voices and players: carrying the leading melody.^[2][1]
5. (mathematics) număr prim: a prime number, divisible only by one and by itself.^[2][1]

Word family

• prim-plan

Related words

• primar
• primăvară
• întâi
• Latin prīmus

Usage notes

A separate regional noun prim (plural primuri, DEX's prim¹) means a fur trim, usually of black lambskin, on the edges of caps, sheepskin waistcoats and coats, in Transylvania the forms primă, primură and primbură mean a ribbon for a hat or for the hair.^[2][9][14] It is a loan from Hungarian prém (“fur trim”), itself from German, and is recorded from the late 17th-century glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^{[15][16][14][9]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 874
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prim, -ă
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prim 2
5. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. prim
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6756
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 233
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 538
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1049
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 356
12. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. prim
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. prim
14. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prim 1
15. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 643
16. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu