different between primary vs primer

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pr?m?rius (“of the first (rank); chief, principal; excellent”), from pr?mus (first; whence the English adjective prime) + -?rius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French primaire, primer, and premier.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?a?m??i/
• (US) enPR: pr??m?r-?, IPA^(key): /?p?a??m??i/ or enPR: pr??m?-r?, IPA^(key): /?p?a?m??i/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?p??em??i/, /?p??em?i/

Adjective

primary (comparative more primary, superlative most primary)

1. first or earliest in a group or series.
   • 1659, John Pearson, Exposition of the Creed

     the church of Christ, in its primary institution

   • , Book II, Chapter VIII

     These I call original, or primary, qualities of body.

2. main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.

   Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.

3. (geology) Earliest formed; fundamental.
4. (chemistry) Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
5. (medicine) Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.
6. (medicine) Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• first
• primus inter pares

Noun

primary (plural primaries)

1. A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party.
2. The first year of grade school.
3. A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
4. The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
5. A primary school.
   • 2001, David Woods, Martyn Cribb, Effective LEAs and school improvement

     Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs.

6. (ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
7. A primary colour.
   • 2003, Julie A Jacko, Andrew Sears, The human-computer interaction handbook

     By adding and subtracting the three primaries, cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries.

8. (military) The first stage of a thermonuclear weapon, which sets off a fission explosion to help trigger a fusion reaction in the weapon's secondary stage.
9. (aviation) A radar return from an aircraft (or other object) produced solely by the reflection of the radar beam from the aircraft's skin, without additional information from the aircraft's transponder.
10. (medicine) Primary site of disease; original location or source of the disease.

11. (electronics) A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary

Translations

References

• primary on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

primary (third-person singular simple present primaries, present participle primarying, simple past and past participle primaried)

1. (US, politics, transitive, intransitive) To challenge (an incumbent sitting politician) for their political party's nomination to run for re-election, through running a challenger campaign in a primary election, especially one that is more ideologically extreme.
2. (US, intransitive, transitive) To take part in a primary election.

Further reading

• primary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• primary in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English primer, primere, from Medieval Latin primarius and primarium (“prayer book”) possibly via Anglo-Norman primer (“prayer book”), from prima (“prime the liturgical hour and office”) + -arius and -arium (“forming related objects”). Its use for schoolbooks derived from the late medieval and early modern use of such prayer books to teach reading.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?a?.m?(?)/, enPR: pr??m?
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p??.m?/, enPR: pr?m??r
• (US, irregular, but common; borrowed from Etymology 2): IPA^(key): /?p?a?m?/, enPR: pr?m??r
• Rhymes: -a?m?(?), -?m?(?)

Noun

primer (plural primers)

1. (historical, Catholicism ecclesiastical) A prayer or devotional book intended for laity, initially an abridgment of the breviary and manual including the hours of the Virgin Mary, 15 gradual and 7 penitential psalms, the litany, the placebo and dirige forming the office of the dead, and the commendations.

   Synonyms: book of hours, prayer book

2. (historical, Protestant ecclesiastical) Similar works issued in England for private prayer in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer.
3. A children's book intended to teach literacy: how to read, write, and spell.
   • 1545, The A.B.C. Primers
4. An introductory text on any subject, particularly basic concepts.
5. (New Zealand) An elementary school class; an elementary school student.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

prime +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?a?.m?(?)/, enPR: pr??m?
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?a?m?/, enPR: pr?m??
• Rhymes: -a?m?(?)

Noun

primer (countable and uncountable, plural primers)

1. Any substance or device, such as priming wire or blasting cap, used to ignite gunpowder or other explosive.
2. (obsolete, rare) A person who primes explosives.
3. A substance used to prime wood, metal, etc. in preparation for painting.
4. A layer of such a substance.
5. A layer of makeup that goes beneath the foundation; undermakeup.
6. (obsolete, rare) A person who primes wood, metal, etc.
7. (biochemistry) A molecule which initiates the synthesis of an enzyme, (especially) a single-stranded nucleic acid molecule which initiates DNA replication.
8. (medicine, zoology) A pheromone which interacts first with the endocrine system.
9. A device used to prime an internal combustion engine with gasoline, (especially) in airplanes.
10. A person who prunes trees.

Related terms

• primary
• prime

Translations

Etymology 3

From Anglo-Norman primer (“first”), from Latin pr?m?rius (“first”)

Adjective

primer (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) First in time, initial, early.

   • the primer English kings

2. (obsolete) First in importance, premier.
3. (obsolete, rare) First in position, foremost.

Derived terms

• primer fine
• primer seizin

Further reading

• Prime, Primer and Priming in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin pr?m?rius.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /p?i?me/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /p?i?me?/
• Rhymes: -e(?)

Adjective

primer (feminine primera, masculine plural primers, feminine plural primeres)

1. first
2. (mathematics) prime (having no divisor except itself and 1):

Usage notes

When primer is the ordinal number of a century or of a regnal name of a monarch or pope, it is written using Roman numerals following the noun. Thus Joan Primer is written Joan I.

For most fractional numbers, the ordinal number is used to indicate the denominator of the fraction. Since 1 is never the denominator of a proper fraction, primer is not normally used to form fractions. Exceptions to this rule include mig (“half”), terç (“third”), quarter (“quarter”), milionèsim (“millionth”), bilionèsim (“billionth”), ....

The feminine form of the ordinal is usually used as the collective noun for a set of like objects of that size. Primera is not used for a set of 1, nor is there is any other term for the concept Exceptions to the usual rule include parell (“set of 2”), qüern (“set of 4”), centenar (“set of 100”), grossa (“set of 144”), miler (“set of 1000”), and milenar (“1000”).

Derived terms

Adverb

primer

1. first; before anything else

Further reading

• “primer” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?i.me/

Verb

primer

1. to dominate, to be dominant over
2. to win (a prize)
3. to prevail, take precedent

Conjugation

Further reading

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

Hungarian

Etymology

From German primär, from French primaire, from Latin primarius.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?prim?r]
• Hyphenation: pri?mer
• Rhymes: -?r

Adjective

primer (comparative primerebb, superlative legprimerebb)

1. primary

Declension

References

Further reading

• primer in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Old French

Adjective

primer m (oblique and nominative feminine singular primere)

1. Alternative form of premier

Adverb

primer

1. Alternative form of premier

Noun

primer m (oblique plural primers, nominative singular primers, nominative plural primer)

1. Alternative form of premier
2. (Anglo-Norman) primer (hymn book)

References

• primer on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• (Ijekavian): prímjer

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pr??mer/
• Hyphenation: pri?mer

Noun

prímer m (Cyrillic spelling ???????)

1. example, instance
2. model, paragon
3. precedence

Declension

Derived terms

Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /primé?r/

Noun

prim??r m inan

1. example (something representative of a group)

Inflection

Derived terms

• na prímer

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?i?me?/, [p?i?me?]

Adjective

primer m (apocopate, standard form primero)

1. (before the noun) Apocopic form of primero (first)

2. (informal, proscribed) Apocopic form of primera (first)

Usage notes

• The form primer is only used before and within the noun phrase of a modified masculine singular noun. In other positions, the standard form primero is used instead.