prime

Borrowed from French prime, from Latin primus (“first”), from earlier prīsmos < *prīsemos < Proto-Italic *priisemos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“beyond, before”).

• enPR: prīm, IPA^(key): /pɹaɪ̯m/
• Hyphenation: prime
• Rhymes: -aɪm

prime (not comparable)

1. First in importance, degree, or rank.

   Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.

2. First in time, order, or sequence.

   Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.

   • 1847, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Princess, Part III, page 52:

     Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump / A league of street in summer solstice down, / Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman.

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, page 21:

     I thought it lawful from my forme act, / And the ſame end ; ſtill watching to oppreſs / Iſrael’s oppreſſours : of what now I ſuffer / She was not the prime cauſe, but I my ſelf, / Who vanquiſht with a peal of words (O weakneſs !) / Gave up my fort of ſilence to a Woman.

3. First in excellence, quality, or value.

   This is a prime location for a bookstore.

   • 1857, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, book 1, chapter 7:

     ‘Is it very pleasant to be there, Bob?’

     ‘Prime,’ said the turnkey.

4. (mathematics, lay) Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).

   Thirteen is a prime number.

5. (mathematics, technical) Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
6. (mathematics) Having its complement closed under multiplication: said only of ideals.
7. Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
8. Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     , lines 245–8:

     […] His ſtarrie Helme unbuckl’d ſhew’d him prime / In Manhood where Youth ended ; by his ſide / As in a glittering Zodiac hung the Sword, / Satans dire dread, and in his hand the Spear.

9. (obsolete) Lecherous; lustful; lewd.
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     , [Act III, scene iii]:

     It is impoſſible you ſhould ſee this, / Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkeyes, / As ſalt as Wolues in pride, and Fooles as groſſe / As Ignorance, made drunke.

• (first in importance, degree, or rank): greatest, most important, main, primary, principal, top
• (first in excellence, quality, or value): excellent, top quality
• (first in time, order, or sequence): earliest, first, original
• (having no nontrivial factors): indivisible
• (dividing a factor of any product it divides):
• ((of an ideal) having its complement closed multiplicatively):

• biprime
• pseudoprime
• semiprime
• (having exactly two integral factors): coprime

• prime-numbered

prime (plural primes)

1. (historical) The first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Canto 9, p. 314,

     His larum bell might lowd and wyde be hard,

     When cause requyrd, but neuer out of time;

     Early and late it rong, at euening and at prime.

2. (Christianity) The religious service appointed to this hour.
3. (obsolete) The early morning generally.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 6, p. 81,

     They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […]

4. (now rare) The earliest stage of something.
   • 1593, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie, London, 1604, Book 1, p. 69,

     To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world.

   • 1645, Edmund Waller, “To a very young Lady” (earlier title: “To my young Lady Lucy Sidney”) in Poems, &c. Written upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons, London: H. Herringman, 1686, p. 101,

     Hope waits upon the flowry prime,

5. The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
   • c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 12,

     When I do count the clock that tells the time,

     And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

     When I behold the violet past prime,

     And sable curls all silver’d o'er with white;

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Sigismonda and Guiscardo, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415, page 124:

     Short were her Marriage-Joys; for in the Prime, / Of Youth, her Lord expir’d before his time: […]

   • 1813, John Chetwode Eustace, A Tour through Italy, London: J. Mawman, Volume 1, Chapter 10, pp. 225-226,

     None but foreigners, excluded by their religion from the cemeteries of the country, are deposited here […] . The far greater part had been cut off in their prime, by unexpected disease or fatal accident.

   • 1965, Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone

     Once upon a time you dressed so fine. You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?

   • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     And it’s daunting because each segment has to tell a full, complete story in something like six minutes while doing justice to revered source material and including the non-stop laughs and genius gags that characterized The Simpsons in its god-like prime.

6. The chief or best individual or part.
   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, “To a Lady, who desired the author to write some verses upon her in the heroic style” in The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, London: W. Bowyer et al., Volume 7, p. 396,

     Give no more to ev’ry guest

     Than he’s able to digest:

     Give him always of the prime;

     And but a little at a time.

7. (music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.
8. (fencing) The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
9. (algebra, number theory) A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.
   • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

   3 is a prime.

10. (card games) A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
11. (backgammon) Six consecutive blocks, which prevent the opponent's pieces from passing.

    I'm threatening to build a prime here.

12. The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
13. (chemistry, obsolete) Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1.
14. An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
15. (obsolete) The priming in a flintlock.
    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, pp. 95–96,

      […] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […]

16. (film) Contraction of prime lens, a film lens
    • Tomlinson, Shawn M. (2015) Going Pro for $200 & How to Choose a Prime Lens, →ISBN: “By the time I shifted to my first autofocus film SLR with the Pentax PZ-10, primes were considered things of the past”

• (most active, thriving, or successful stage or period): bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flower, flush, heyday, peak
• (chief or best individual or part): choice, prize, quality, select
• (algebra: prime element of a mathematical structure): prime number (when an integer)

• (algebra: prime element of a mathematical structure): composite

• primality

Related to primage and primus.

• enPR: prīm, IPA^(key): /pɹaɪ̯m/
• Rhymes: -aɪm
• Hyphenation: prime

prime (third-person singular simple present primes, present participle priming, simple past and past participle primed)

1. (transitive) To prepare a mechanism for its main work.

   You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.

2. (transitive) To apply a coat of primer paint to.

   I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be renewed.
   • 1634, Francis Quarles, “My Soule Hath Desired Thee in the Night”, in Emblemes, London: G. M., published 1635, book III, page 129:

     Nights baſhfull Empreſſe, though ſhe often wayne, / As oft repents her darkneſſe ; primes againe ; / And with her circling Hornes does re-embrace / Her brothers wealth, and orbs her ſilver face.

4. (intransitive) To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
5. (intransitive, of a steam boiler) To work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed.
6. To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
7. To prepare; to make ready; to instruct beforehand; to coach.

   to prime a witness

   The boys are primed for mischief.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July​, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Dobbin of Ours”, in Vanity Fair. A Novel without a Hero, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108, page 42:

     “He’s priming himself,” Osborne whispered to Dobbin, and at length the hour and the carriage arrived for Vauxhall.

8. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) To trim or prune.

   to prime trees

9. (mathematics) To mark with a prime mark.

• (to apply a coat of primer paint to): ground, undercoat

From French prime (“reward, prize, bonus”).

• IPA^(key): /pɹiːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

prime (plural primes)

1. (cycling) An intermediate sprint within a race, usually offering a prize and/or points.
   • 1997 Arnie Baker, Smart Cycling: Successful Training and Racing for Riders of All Levels

     Most primes are won with gaps on the field; most sprints are in bunches.

• primer

• emirp, imper.

From the feminine of Old French prim, prin, from Latin prīmus, from earlier prīsmos < *prīsemos < Proto-Italic *priisemos.

• IPA^(key): /pʁim/

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -im

prime f (plural primes)

1. reward; prize; bonus
2. premium (insurance policy)

• “prime” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• imper

prime

1. first

prime

1. feminine plural of primo

• premi

prīme

1. vocative masculine singular of prīmus

• prime in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• prime in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

• IPA^(key): [ˈpri.me]

prime

1. feminine plural nominative form of prim
2. feminine plural accusative form of prim
3. neuter plural nominative form of prim
4. neuter plural accusative form of prim

prime

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of primar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of primar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of primar.

prime

1. first