primer
Pluralprimers
Pluralprimers
- 1
- 2USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/An introductory text on a subject, covering its basic concepts.
The professor wrote a primer on quantum computing for nonspecialists.
Several primers on climate science are aimed at general readers.
Similarintroduction, guide, handbook
Note
What was a first book for children became a first book for anyone, and it usually takes on: a primer on climate science, a primer on diesel engines. The quality readers prize is the one a review praised in William F. Bolton's The Railwayman's Diesel Manual (1959): clear explanation that unravels a difficult subject for the layman as well as the student.
- 3A substance or device, such as a blasting cap or priming wire, used to ignite gunpowder or another explosive.
Each round relies on a primer to ignite the propellant charge.
Demolition crews insert a primer to detonate the main explosive.
Note
Here the word starts over. It is a separate formation, prime plus -er, unrelated to the prayer book and the reading book. In firearms it names the small igniting part of a cartridge: percussion primers, shotgun primers, two-piece primers seated in a battery cup. Handling advice is practical. Oil or dirt from the fingers can spoil the pellet and cause misfires.
- 4USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A children's book designed to teach the basics of reading, writing, and spelling.
Generations of students learned to read from the same well-worn primer.
The classroom shelf held a stack of primers for the youngest pupils.
Similarreader
Note
The schoolbook carries the same Latin name as the lay prayer book, and it still turns up in titles naming who the book serves. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age (1995) builds its story around the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a gift from a grandfather to a four-year-old. The pattern is a capitalized title, sometimes with an adjective, ending in Primer.
- 5A base layer of makeup worn beneath the foundation to smooth the skin.
A silicone-based primer fills fine lines before the foundation is applied.
He patted primer over his nose to keep the shine down.
Note
The cosmetics trade's version of the painter's undercoat, with the same logic: a base laid down so that what goes on top holds. Professional manuals also call it undermakeup. Stan Place and Bobbi Ray Madry's The Art and Science of Professional Makeup (1989) uses both words. It tells the artist to let the primer set before sponging foundation over it.
- 6A single layer of the preparatory coating applied before the finish paint.
The painter applied a primer, then sanded it lightly before the topcoat.
Two thin primers adhere better than one thick coat.
Similarundercoat
- 7A molecule that initiates the synthesis of an enzyme, especially a short single-stranded nucleic acid that starts DNA replication.
The technician added a primer that binds to the target sequence before amplification.
Short primers anneal to the template strand to begin replication.
Note
In the laboratory the word nearly always means a short single strand of nucleic acid, and it comes with its own verbs: primers bind, or anneal, to a template strand, and replication proceeds from them. The wider meaning, any molecule that sets enzyme synthesis going, is the general case. The DNA sense is the specific one most readers will meet.
- 8A device that injects gasoline into an internal combustion engine to help it start, especially in airplanes.
He pumped the primer twice to flood the cylinders with fuel before ignition.
Aircraft mechanics check that the primer seals properly to prevent fuel leaks.
- 9In biology, a pheromone that acts first on the hormone-producing endocrine system of the animal that receives it.
A queen bee releases a primer that suppresses ovary development in workers.
Mammalian primers can alter reproductive cycles in nearby individuals.
Note
In the study of animal signaling the word marks one half of a pair. A primer pheromone works through the endocrine system and produces slower, longer-term physiological or developmental changes. A releaser pheromone triggers an immediate behavioral response. The distinction lies in the route and the timescale, not in the chemical itself.
- 10Someone who prunes trees, cutting away branches to shape them or keep them healthy.
The estate hired a primer to thin out the old apple trees.
Skilled primers know exactly which limbs to remove without harming the tree.
Similarpruner
- 11USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A devotional book for laypeople, originally a shortened breviary containing the hours of the Virgin Mary, the penitential psalms, the litany, and the office of the dead.
The widow read from her primer each evening by candlelight.
Illuminated primers were treasured possessions in medieval households.
Note
The oldest meaning, and the one that explains the name: Medieval Latin primarium, a prayer book named from prime, the liturgical hour and office. Historians of medieval devotion use it alongside book of hours for the layperson's book built around the hours of the Virgin. Keep it distinct from the full breviary it abridged, which belonged to the clergy's daily office rather than to private lay prayer.
- 12USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/Any of various English books issued for private prayer in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer.
The family owned a worn primer they used for daily devotions at home.
Several primers were printed in London during Elizabeth's reign.
Note
The name outlived the old liturgy. These are the Protestant counterparts of the medieval Catholic prayer book, shaped to the Book of Common Prayer rather than to the hours of the Virgin. Historical writing uses the same word for both kinds, so context does the work: whether the book is Catholic or Protestant, and whether it comes before or after the Common Prayer, tells the reader which is meant.
- 13A worker who prepared explosive charges for detonation, fitting them with fuses or detonators.
The quarry's primer packed each charge and set the fuse by hand.
An experienced primer could ready a blast in minutes.
Note
The worker rather than the charge, and a use that has died out. Today the bare word in a blasting context will be read as the igniting device, not as a person. A modern sentence about who readied the explosives needs a different noun. This sense belongs to historical writing only.
- 14A worker who applies a first, sealing coat to wood, metal, and similar surfaces before finish coats are added.
Note
The tradesman behind the undercoat, an agent noun that has dropped out of use. In a paint shop today the word names only the coating. A sentence such as "the primer finished the hull" would be read as the paint, not the worker. The person survives only in historical texts.
- 15USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A beginning class in an elementary school, or a young pupil belonging to it.
Each morning the primer recited the alphabet before the older children arrived.
The youngest primers struggled to hold their slates steady.
Note
A New Zealand school word, now obsolete, that moved from the children's reading book to the people using it. The same word named both the beginners' class and a child in that class. You will meet it in older New Zealand writing, where context shows whether a class or a pupil is meant. Avoid it in present-day writing.
- 16First in time; initial or earliest.
The primer accounts of the voyage differ from later retellings.
the primer English kings
1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-OlbionNote
The adjectives came in by their own route: Anglo-Norman primer, "first", from Latin primarius. That is the same Latin word that lies, by another path, behind the prayer book. Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion (1612) speaks of "the primer English kings," meaning the earliest. The sense is obsolete, so in modern prose say earliest or first.
- 17First in importance; chief or premier.
The primer noble of the realm advised the king directly.
His primer concern was the safety of the city.
Note
Rank instead of time: here the primer one is the chief one, not the earliest. The meaning is obsolete, and modern English expresses it with premier or chief. Read it carefully in older texts, where it can look like a misprint for prime.
- 18First in position; foremost or at the front.
The primer column advanced toward the gate.
He took the primer seat at the long table.
Note
The rarest of the three adjectives, placing something at the front rather than first in time or rank. It does not compare, so nothing is "more primer" than anything else. Because it is both obsolete and rare, it belongs to the reading of old texts and not to new writing. Foremost says the same thing today.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English primer, from Medieval Latin primarius and primarium ("prayer book"), possibly through Anglo-Norman primer, based on prima (the liturgical hour) plus the suffixes -arius and -arium. Its use for schoolbooks grew out of the late medieval and early modern practice of using such prayer books to teach reading.
Formed from prime plus the suffix -er.
From Anglo-Norman primer ("first"), from Latin prīmārius ("first").