different between principle vs prince

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French principe, from Latin pr?ncipium (“beginning, foundation”), from pr?nceps (“first”); see prince.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??ns?p?l/, /?p??ns?p?l/
• Hyphenation: prin?ci?ple
• Homophone: principal

Noun

principle (plural principles)

1. A fundamental assumption or guiding belief.

   • Let us consider ‘my dog is asleep on the floor’ again. Frege thinks that this sentence can be analyzed in various different ways. Instead of treating it as expressing the application of __ is asleep on the floor to my dog, we can think of it as expressing the application of the concept
          my dog is asleep on __
     to the object
          the floor
     (see Frege 1919). Frege recognizes what is now a commonplace in the logical analysis of natural language. We can attribute more than one logical form to a single sentence. Let us call this the principle of multiple analyses. Frege does not claim that the principle always holds, but as we shall see, modern type theory does claim this.

2. A rule used to choose among solutions to a problem.

3. (sometimes pluralized) Moral rule or aspect.

   I don't doubt your principles.

   You are clearly a person of principle.

   It's the principle of the thing; I won't do business with someone I can't trust.

4. (physics) A rule or law of nature, or the basic idea on how the laws of nature are applied.

   Bernoulli's Principle

   The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents two fermions from occupying the same state.

   The principle of the internal combustion engine

5. A fundamental essence, particularly one producing a given quality.
   • 1845, William Gregory, Outlines of Chemistry

     Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna.

6. (obsolete) A beginning.
7. A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of Being Religious

     The soul of man is an active principle.

8. An original faculty or endowment.
   • 1828, Dugal Stewart, The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man

     those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering

Usage notes

• Principle ("moral rule"), as a noun, is often confused with principal, which can be an adjective ("most important") or a noun ("school principal"). A memory aid to avoid this confusion is: "The principal alphabetic principle places A before E".

Synonyms

• (moral rule or aspect): tenet

Derived terms

Related terms

• prince
• principal
• principality

Translations

Verb

principle (third-person singular simple present principles, present participle principling, simple past and past participle principled)

1. (transitive) To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct.

   • Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired.

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman, from Old French prince, from Latin pr?nceps (“first head”), from pr?mus (“first”) + capi? (“seize, take”). Doublet of princeps.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pr?ns, IPA^(key): /p??ns/
• Rhymes: -?ns
• Homophone: prints (/p??nts/) (in some accents)

Noun

prince (plural princes)

1. (now archaic or historical) A (male) ruler, a sovereign; a king, monarch. [from 13th c.]
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, 2010, p.600:

     By his last years Erasmus realized that princes like Henry VIII and François I had deceived him in their elaborate negotiations for universal peace, but his belief in the potential of princely power for good remained undimmed.

   • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, 2010, p.411:

     If Henry does not fully trust him, is it surprising? A prince is alone: in his council chamber, in his bedchamber, and finally in Hell's antechamber, stripped – as Harry Percy said – for Judgment.

2. (obsolete) A female monarch.

   • Queen Elizabeth, a prince admirable above her sex.

3. Someone who is preeminent in their field; a great person. [from 13th c.]

4. The (male) ruler or head of a principality. [from 14th c.]
   • 2011, Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, 26 June:

     He is the prince who never grew up – a one-time playboy and son of the Hollywood star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco.

5. A male member of a royal family other than the ruler; especially (in the United Kingdom) the son or grandson of the monarch. [from 14th c.]
6. A non-royal high title of nobility, especially in France and the Holy Roman Empire.

   Prince Louis de Broglie won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics.

   • 2011, Katharine Whitehorn, The Guardian, 16 October:

     Conspiracy theories are always enticing: one I was involved with in the 50s was about Mayerling, the 19th-century Austrian scandal involving a prince’s lover who died in dodgy circumstances in a hunting lodge.

7. The mushroom Agaricus augustus.
8. A type of court card used in tarot cards, the equivalent of the jack.
9. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Rohana.

Usage notes

• The female equivalent is princess.
• A prince is usually addressed as "Your Highness". A son of a king is "His Royal Highness"; a son of an emperor is "His Imperial Highness". A sovereign prince may have a style such as "His Serene Highness".

Synonyms

• (mushroom): Agaricus augustus

Hypernyms

• ruler

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• Agaricus augustus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Agaricus augustus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• pincer

French

Etymology

From Middle French prince, from Old French prince, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin pr?nceps, pr?ncipem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???s/

Noun

prince m (plural princes)

1. prince

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Turkish: prens

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• pincer

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French prince.

Noun

prince m (plural princes)

1. prince

Descendants

• French: prince

Old French

Etymology

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin pr?ncipem, accusative singular of pr?nceps.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?prin.t?s?/

Noun

prince m (oblique plural princes, nominative singular princes, nominative plural prince)

1. prince

Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin pr?nceps, possibly a borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?intse/

Noun

prince m (oblique plural princes, nominative singular princes, nominative plural prince)

1. prince
   • c. 1235, anonymous, Vida of Jaufre Rudel:

     Jaufres Rudels de Blaia si fo mout gentils hom, e fo princes de Blaia.

     Jaufre Rudel of Blaye was a most noble man, and was the Lord of Blaye.

Walloon

Noun

prince m (plural princes, feminine princesse, feminine plural princesses)

1. prince