different between pristine vs foremost

English

Etymology 1

From Middle French pristin, borrowed from Latin pristinus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??sti?n/, /p??s?ti?n/, /p??s?ta?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n, -a?n

Adjective

pristine (comparative more pristine, superlative most pristine)

1. Unspoiled; still with its original purity; uncorrupted or unsullied.

2. Primitive, pertaining to the earliest state of something.

   • Thus fable reports that the fair Grimalkin, whom Venus, at the desire of a passionate lover, converted from a cat into a fine woman, no sooner perceived a mouse than, mindful of her former sport, and still retaining her pristine nature, she leaped from the bed of her husband to pursue the little animal.

3. Perfect.

Derived terms

• pristinely

Translations

Etymology 2

From Ancient Greek ??????? (príst?s, “a saw, one that saws”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?n

Adjective

pristine (comparative more pristine, superlative most pristine)

1. Relating to sawfishes of the family Pristidae.
   • 2008, J.M. Whitty, N.M. Phillips, D.L. Morgan, J.A. Chaplin, D.C. Thorburn & S.C. Peverell, Habitat associations of Freshwater Sawfish (Pristis microdon)and Northern River Sharks (Glyphis sp. C): including genetic analysis of P. microdon across northern Australia [1]

     This indicates that the present levels of genetic diversity in P. microdon are not unusually low, although the amount of diversity to be expected in pristine populations of coastal species of elasmobranch remains elusive because all populations investigated to date have suffered some degree of decline (e.g. Sandoval-Castillo et al. 2004, Keeney et al. 2005, Hoelzel et al. 2006, Stow et al. 2006, Lewallen et al. 2007).

Anagrams

• Petrinis, spiriten

Italian

Adjective

pristine

1. feminine plural of pristino

Latin

Adjective

pr?stine

1. vocative masculine singular of pr?stinus

English

Etymology

From Old English formest, fyrmest (“earliest, first, most prominent”), from Proto-Germanic *frumistaz, from the locative stem *fur-, *fr- + the superlative suffix *-umistaz, stem ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pr-. The suffix *-umistaz was a compound suffix, created from the rarer comparative suffix *-umô (as in Old English fruma) + the regular superlative suffix *-istaz (English -est); *-umô in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-.

Cognate with Old Frisian formest, Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (frumists). See for, first and Old English fruma for more. Partially cognate to primus, from Proto-Indo-European *pr- + Latin superlative suffix -imus, from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-.

A comparative former was back-formed analogically, leaving the m from *-umô in place. Later the Old English suffix complex -(u)m-est was conflated with the word most through folk etymology, so that the word is now interpreted as fore +? -most.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??.m??st/
• Rhymes: -??st

Adjective

foremost (not comparable)

1. first, either in time or in space
2. Most forward; front
3. of a higher rank or position; paramount
4. (nautical) closest to the bow

Translations

Adverb

foremost (not comparable)

1. in front
2. prominently forward
3. especially; particularly
   • 2001, Chantel Laran Sawyer Lumpkin, The Influences of Assets on the Academic Achievement of African American College Students, p. 155:

     As dependent minors the foremost proximal system was family, followed by school and community.

   • 2013, Robert Woods, Evangelical Christians and Popular Culture: Pop Goes the Gospel, p. XXIX:

     Lewis is the twentieth century's foremost popular writer and the most influential public intellectual for evangelicals.

   • 2019, Louise Taylor, Alex Morgan heads USA past England into Women’s World Cup final (in The Guardian, 2 July 2019)[1]

     England head to Nice for Saturday’s third-place playoff after yet more semi-final disappointment but with heads held high having played their part in a wonderful game featuring some particularly harsh luck. Foremost among it was the marginal offside which saw an Ellen White goal disallowed and, later, a penalty miss by Steph Houghton.

Translations