primitia

English

Etymology

Latin primitiae (“first fruits”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈmɪʃə/

Noun

primitia (plural primitias or primitiae)

1. (obsolete) The first fruits.
2. (UK, law, obsolete) The first year's whole profit of an ecclesiastical preferment.
   • 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

     the primitias of your parsonage

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “primitia”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Noun

prīmitia f (genitive prīmitiae); first declension

1. (chiefly in the plural) first fruits
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.519–520:

     farra tamen veterēs iaciēbant, farra metēbant,
     prīmitiās Cererī farra resecta dabant.

     Literal translation:
     Yet ancient [peoples] were sowing grains, [and] grains they were harvesting;
     [and,] having been reaped, the first-fruits [of these] grains they were giving to Ceres.
     Or, in more natural English:
     Yet the ancients were sowing and reaping grain crops, offering the first-fruits of their harvests to Ceres.
     (Note: Far, plural farra, is commonly mis-translated; see also Ceres (mythology).)

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	prīmitia	prīmitiae
Genitive	prīmitiae	prīmitiārum
Dative	prīmitiae	prīmitiīs
Accusative	prīmitiam	prīmitiās
Ablative	prīmitiā	prīmitiīs
Vocative	prīmitia	prīmitiae

Descendants

• French: prémices
• Spanish: primicias
• Portuguese: primícias