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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 cricket by the kitchen fire. He has a primer open before him at the alphabet. His round eyes are fixed upon the page as long as Frank is looking at him, but he requires constant watching. His teacher sits near-by, with a Latin dictionary resting upon a light stand before him, and a copy of ...

— Frank's Campaign - or the Farm and the Camp • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... received from Ginn & Co., Boston, a copy of the "Finch Primer." This is another one of those bright little books for our small brothers and sisters; it has colored illustrations, and ...

— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 30, June 3, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... to pass measures against the Church, and their reluctance to consent to taxation, were even more marked than before. Their critical spirit was shown by their repeated rejection of the Statutes of Wills and Uses designed by Henry to protect from evasion his feudal rights, such as reliefs and primer seisins.[800] This demand, writes Chapuys,[801] "has been the occasion of strange words against the King and the Council, and in spite of all the efforts of the King's friends, it was rejected".[802] In the matter of supplies they were equally outspoken; they would only grant one-tenth ...

— Henry VIII. • A. F. Pollard

... labouring under a peculiar little monosyllabic cough; a sort of primer, or easy introduction to the art ...

— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... It is not the hurrying, clattering and chattering individual who turns off the most work. He may imagine he is getting over a lot of track, but he wastes far more than the necessary amount of steam in doing it. The fable of the hare and the tortoise would not be a bad primer for a number of us, and the lesson relearned would not only be beneficial in a business-producing way, but it would help us in the ...

— Initiative Psychic Energy • Warren Hilton

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