imprimis

See also: imprimís

English

Alternative forms

• imprimus (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin imprimis (“firstly”).

Adverb

imprimis (not comparable)

1. In the first place (used to introduce a list of items or considerations).
   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 46:

     Imprimis, of a settle or arm-chair, which he plaited very neatly for himself of straw of different colours, full of handsome figures and crosses, which no one looked upon without admiration.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

     Hold; while Prometheus is about it, I’ll order a complete man after a desirable pattern. Imprimis, fifty feet high in his socks; then, chest modelled after the Thames Tunnel; then, legs with roots to ’em, to stay in one place; then, arms three feet through the wrist; no heart at all, brass forehead, and about a quarter of an acre of fine brains; and let me see—shall I order eyes to see outwards? No, but put a sky-light on top of his head to illuminate inwards. There, take the order, and away.

Latin

Verb

imprimis

1. second-person singular present active indicative of imprimō

Adverb

imprīmīs (not comparable)

1. firstly, especially

References

• “imprimis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “imprimis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “imprimis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Verb

imprimis

1. second-person plural present indicative of imprimir