PRIMER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Primer

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/prˈaɪmər/ Listen

noun

Primer n. One who, or that which, primes; specifically, An instrument or device for priming; esp., a cap, tube, or water containing percussion powder or other compound for igniting a charge of gunpowder.

Primer n.

Originally, a small prayer book for church service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction. "The primer, or office of the Blessed Virgin."

A small elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner. "As he sat in the school at his prymer."

(Print.) A kind of type, of which there are two species; one, called long primer, intermediate in size between bourgeois and small pica (see Long primer); the other, called great primer, larger than pica. Note: Great primer type.

adjective

Primer adj. First; original; primary. (Obs.) "The primer English kings."

Primer fine (O. Eng. Law), a fine due to the king on the writ or commencement of a suit by fine.

Primer seizin (Feudal Law), the right of the king, when a tenant in capite died seized of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, if of full age, one year's profits of the land if in possession, and half a year's profits if the land was in reversion expectant on an estate for life; now abolished.

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Etymology of 'Primer'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Primer" Quotes from Famous Books

... A primer of information about composing sticks, galleys, leads, brass rules, cutting and mitering machines, etc. 47 pp.; illustrated; 50 ...

— Punctuation - A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and - their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically • Frederick W. Hamilton

... or heated oil priming, will dry faster and be more penetrating than cold. I consider heated "boiled oil" and red lead the best primer for iron. ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882 • Various

... a text-book on physiology for schools do not permit so full a description of the voice as the subject deserves. For additional details, the student is referred to Cohen's The Throat and the Voice, a volume in the "American Health Primer Series." Price ...

— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell

... follows: "Sir Godfrey Disseisin at home Wednesday morning, December the twenty-fifth, from half after eleven until the following day. Dancing; also a Dragon will be roasted. R. S. V. P." The Disseisin crest with its spirited motto, "Saute qui peult," originated by the venerable Primer Disseisin, followed by his son Tortious Disseisin, and borne with so much renown in and out of a hundred battles by a thousand subsequent Disseisins, ornamented ...

— The Dragon of Wantley - His Tale • Owen Wister

... would forego in the sea-fight that almost inaudible, breathless whisper of "Our ammunition is nearly done"? or again the moment when Skinner pokes Mr. Hardie lightly in the side and says, "But—I've—got—THE RECEIPT"? And could anything express the state of young Reginald's mind so ineffably as the primer type of his ...

— Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

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