prime

From Middle English prime, from Old French prime and its etymon, Latin prīmus (“first”), from earlier prīsmos < *prīsemos < Proto-Italic *priisemos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“beyond, before”). Doublet of primo and primus.

The noun sense "apostrophe-like symbol" originates from the fact that the symbol ′ was originally a superscript Roman numeral one.

• enPR: prīm, IPA^(key): /pɹaɪ̯m/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Hyphenation: prime
• Rhymes: -aɪm

prime (comparative primer, superlative primest)

1. First in importance, degree, or rank.

   Synonyms: greatest, main, most important, primary, principal, top

   Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.

2. First in time, order, or sequence.

   Synonyms: earliest, first, original

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

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

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 52:

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

   • 2013, Ralph Denny, Accounts for Solicitors - Page 33:

     The process of recording a transaction in the accounts begins with an entry in what is termed a book of prime entry.

3. First in excellence, quality, or value.

   Synonyms: excellent, top quality

   This is a prime location for a bookstore.

   • 1820, Thomas Moore, W. Simpkin, R. Marshall, Jack Randall's Diary of Proceedings at the House of Call for Genius:

     Gemmen (says he), you all well know / The joy there is whene'er we meet; / It's what I call the primest go, / And rightly named, 'tis—'quite a treat,' […]

   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “The Child of the Marshalsea”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 50:

     "Is it very pleasant to be there, Bob?" / "Prime," said the turnkey.

   • 1861, Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management:

     Average cost, 10d. to 18. per lb. for the primest parts.

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. (algebra, of an ideal) Having its complement closed under multiplication.
7. (algebra, of a nonzero module) Such that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
8. Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
9. Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 245–248:

     [...] 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.

10. (obsolete) Lecherous, lewd, lustful.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 53:

      It is impoſſible you ſhould ſee this, / Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkies, / As ſalt as Wolues, in pride; and fooles as groſſe / As ignorance made drunke: [...]

• (having no nontrivial factors): indivisible

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

prime (plural primes)

1. (historical) The first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 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, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 81:

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

4. (now rare) The earliest stage of something.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], 3rd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, book II, page 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,^[1]

     Hope waits upon the flowry prime,

5. The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […]‎^[2], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     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: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 124:

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

   • 1813, John Chetwode Eustace, chapter 10, in A Tour through Italy‎^[3], volume 1, London: J. Mawman, pages 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 (lyrics and music), “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,^[4]

     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. Something which is first in importance or rank: a prime defense company, mortgage lender, etc.
   • 1966, United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Small Business, Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Select Committee on Small Business, page 60:

     I found just as we were fearful we would find that many of the big primes felt that this was a change of policy on the part of the U.S. Government to let the big fellows take care of it, and they were ready to cut back, and in many instances were cutting back […]

   • 2023 December 4, Can Palmer Luckey Reinvent the U.S. Defense Industry? - WSJ, The Wall Street Journal:

     The large primes are struggling to do things the way Anduril does, because they're publicly traded companies with an existing investor class that invested in them to be a certain type of company.

8. (music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.
9. (fencing) The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
10. (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.

11. (card games) A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
12. (backgammon) A series of consecutive blocks. A prime of six prevents the opponent's pieces from passing.

    I'm threatening to build a prime here.

13. The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
14. (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.
15. An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
16. (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^[5], London, pages 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 […]

17. (film) Contraction of prime lens, a film lens.
    • Tomlinson, Shawn M. (2015) Going Pro for $200 & How to Choose a Prime Lens, →ISBN, page 72: “By the time I shifted to my first autofocus film SLR with the Pentax PZ-10, primes were considered things of the past”
18. A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
19. (psychology) A stimulus which causes priming.

• (early morning generally): See Thesaurus:early morning or Thesaurus:morning
• (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)
• (A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.): white

• (antonym(s) of “algebra: prime element of a mathematical structure”): composite

Related to primage and Latin prīmus.

• 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 fill or prepare the chamber of 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.
   • 1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220:

     Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and the engine blowing off.

6. To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
7. To prepare; to make ready.

   The boys are primed for mischief.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Dobbin of Ours”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 42:

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

8. (archaic) To instruct beforehand, as for an examination; to coach.

   to prime a witness

9. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To trim or prune.

   to prime trees

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

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

• prime the pump
• prime up

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

• IPA^(key): /pɹiːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• 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., Perim, Priem

From proj (“to guard, defend”).^[1]

prime f pl (definite plural primet)

1. remedies

• proj

From the feminine of Old French prim, prin, from Latin prīmus.

Noun from English premium.

• IPA^(key): /pʁim/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Paris):

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• Rhymes: -im
• Homophones: primes, prîmes

prime (plural primes)

1. (obsolete outside of set phrases) first

   Synonym: premier

   de prime abord ― at first glance

   prime jeunesse ― first flush of youth

• primer
• primat
• primesautier

prime f (plural primes)

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

• chasseur de primes
• en prime
• prime de départ
• prime de bienvenue

• → Ottoman Turkish: پریم (prim)
  • Turkish: prim

• “prime”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• 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.

prime

1. inflection of premir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): [ˈpri.me]

prime

1. nominative/accusative feminine/neuter plural of prim

prime (Cyrillic spelling приме)

1. third-person plural present of primiti

prime

1. inflection of premir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative
2. inflection of primar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

prime

1. first