primacy

English

Etymology

From Old French primacie, from Medieval Latin primatia (“office of a church primate”), from Latin primas plus a suffix corresponding to -acy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.si/, /ˈpɹɪ.mə.si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.si/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

Noun

primacy (usually uncountable, plural primacies)

1. The state or condition of being prime or first, as in time, place, rank, etc.
   • December 25 2016, Amruta Patil, “The book in my hand”, in The Hindu‎^[1]:

     I am reading Nick Sousanis’ PhD dissertation-as-a-comic Unflattening. It debunks the primacy of word over image in Western culture and suggests that the two are equal partners in meaning-making.

2. (archaic) Excellence; supremacy.
3. (religion) The office, rank, or character of a primate, it being the chief ecclesiastical station or dignity in a national church.
   • December 2 2016, Ecumenical Patriarch points to areas of agreement with Pope, Catholic World News‎^[2]:

     Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy, emphasized the many areas of agreement between Pope Francis and himself in response to the social concerns of the day.

4. (religion) The office or dignity of an archbishop.

Derived terms

• primacy effect

Translations

the state or condition of being prime or first

• Bulgarian: първенство (bg) n (pǎrvenstvo)
• Dutch: voorang m
• French: primauté (fr) f
• Georgian: პრიმატი (ṗrimaṭi)
• German: Primat (de) m or n
• Irish: príomhacht f

  Old Irish: prímdacht f

• Korean: 주요 (ko) (juyo)
• Maori: tuatahitanga
• Portuguese: primado (pt) m, primazia (pt) f
• Russian: перви́чность (ru) n (pervíčnostʹ), пе́рвенство (ru) n (pérvenstvo), перворо́дство (ru) n (pervoródstvo), перворо́дность (ru) f (pervoródnostʹ), прима́тство n (primátstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: првѐнство m, пре̏дно̄ст f

  Roman: prvènstvo (sh) m, prȅdnōst (sh) f

• Spanish: primacía f

the office, rank, or character of a primate

• Armenian:

  Old Armenian: նախագահ (naxagah)

• Bulgarian: архиепископски сан m (arhiepiskopski san)
• Dutch: primaatschap (nl) n
• German: Primas (de) m
• Irish: príomhaíocht f
• Portuguese: primado (pt) m
• Russian: первосвяти́тельство (ru) n (pervosvjatítelʹstvo)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} primazia f

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “primacy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)