premier

See also: Premier and premiér

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French premier (adjective), from Latin prīmārius. Doublet of primary.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛ.mi.ɛː/, /ˈpɹɛm.jɛː/, /ˈpɹɛ.mi.ə/, /ˈpɹɛm.jə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈmɪəɹ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹimjɚ/
• (Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹemjə/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Audio (Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: premiere (in some US pronunciations, not in UK pronunciation)

Adjective

premier (not comparable)

1. Foremost; first or highest in quality or degree.
   • 2004, Philip Moore, Scouting an Anthropology of Sport, Anthropologica, Volume 46, Number 1, Canadian Anthropology Society, page 40,

     This failure, for a team associated with one of the premier Australian Rules Football teams with the longest of traditions, is truly enormous.

   • 2011, Kate Askew, Dot. Bomb Australia, Read How You Want, page 70,

     If they′d followed the advice they had received more carefully, they would have paired up with John Fairfax Holdings, later Fairfax Media, Australia′s premier independent media company.

   • 2011, Pippa de Bruyn, Keith Bain, Frommer′s South Africa, 7th edition, unnumbered page:

     South Africa′s golfing greats battle it out on one of the country′s premier courses.

2. (heraldry) Most ancient; first to hold a specified status.
   • [1777, Antoine Pyron du Marte, Mr. Porny, The Elements of Heraldry:

     PREMIER, a. This French word, which signifies first, is used by English Heralds to signify the most ancient Peer of any Degree by Creation; as Premier Baron, &c.]

   • 1882, Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, page 1390:

     […] dau. of Lord Forbes, Premier Baron of Scotland (the Cumine family were of very ancient date […])

   • 1890, William Thomas Stead, The Review of Reviews, page 327:

     "THE PREMIER DUKES OF FRANCE. " It will be seen from the autograph appended [...] He was the first to arrive, but it was to his coachman that he owed it that he became the premier Duke of France.

Derived terms

• nonpremier
• premier cricket

Related terms

• premier danseur
• premier jus

Translations

foremost, very first or very highest in quality or degree — see also first,‎ principal,‎ superior,‎ excellent,‎ leader,‎ select,‎ chosen

• Bulgarian: главен (bg) (glaven), старши (bg) (starši)
• Czech: přední (cs)
• Finnish: tärkein (fi), johtava (fi)
• French: premier (fr) m, première (fr) f
• Interlingua: prime
• Polish: główny (pl), pierwszy (pl), przedni (pl)
• Portuguese: ^{(please verify)} primeiro (pt)
• Russian: пе́рвый (ru) (pérvyj), перве́йший (ru) (pervéjšij), передово́й (ru) (peredovój), выдаю́щийся (ru) (vydajúščijsja)
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} vynikajúci m
• Spanish: fénix (es) m (noun)
• Swedish: först (sv), förnämst (sv), främst (sv)

See also

• preeminent, primary, prime

Noun

premier (plural premiers)

1. (politics, UK, Westminster system) The head of government in parliament and leader of the cabinet.
   1. (politics, UK parliament) The prime minister.
      • 1871 July 29, “Our Tyrant”, The Spectator, Volume 303, Issues 9308-9315, page 910,

        Mr. Gladstone had literally no option. Not to coerce the Lords was to coerce the Commons to continue purchase in spite of their repeated votes for its abolition, and this the Premier had as little the power as the will to do.

   2. (politics, Australia, Canada, South Africa) The leader of a state or provincial government and cabinet.
      • 1974, Irving M. Abella, On Strike; Six Key Labour Struggles in Canada, 1919-1949, page 96:

        More surprising than the company′s activities and interests were those of the premier of Ontario, Mitchell Hepburn.

      • 1986, R. Kenneth Carty, National Politics and Community in Canada, page 116:

        The major concern of most of the premiers who attended the 1887 conference was, as Macdonald well understood, to put pressure upoon Ottawa to amend the B.N.A. Act to increase the subsidies paid to the provinces by tying them to current population levels rather than those of 1860.

      • 2007, Patrick Moray Weller, Cabinet Government in Australia, 1901-2006: Practice, Principles, Performance, page 1:

        John Forrest had dominated the fledgling state of Western Australia, serving as premier for the previous decade.

      • 2009, Andrew Stewart, edited by John Spoehr, Chapter 16: Industrial Relations: State of South Australia: From Crisis to Prosperity?, page 302:

        In 1890 it was South Australian Premier Charles Cameron Kingston who first proposed a system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration to deal with industrial unrest.

      • 2011, Jennifer Curtin, Marian Sawer, “4: Oceania”, in Gretchen Bauer, Manon Tremblay, editors, Women in Executive Power: A Global Overview, page 56:

        In 2009 Kristina Keneally became Labor premier in NSW in similar circumstances to her predecessors in Western Australia and Victoria - a Labor government that was in deep trouble because of mismanagement and corruption scandals.

2. (politics, non-Westminster) The government leader in a legislative congress or leader of a government-level administrative body; the head of government.
   • 1983, Guo Zhou, China & the World, Volume 4, Beijing Review, page 13,

     This shows that our policy of strengthening friendly ties with Africa as developed by Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai is a correct one and that it has won popular support in Africa.

   • 1998, The New Encyclopædia Britannica, volume 16, page 61:

     Actual decision-making power in China resides in the state′s executive organs and in the CCP. At the national level the top government executive organ is the State Council, which is led by the premier.

   • 2008, Steffen W. Schmidt, Mack C. Shelley, Barbara A. Bardes, American Government & Politics Today, page 470:

     So, in the case of Russia and some other states, the head of state is the president (who is elected) and who then can name the premier and the cabinet ministers. The intent of this system is for the president to be popularly elected and to exercise political leadership, while the premier runs the everyday operations of government and leads the legislative power.

3. (nautical, slang) The first lieutenant or other second-in-command officer of a ship.
4. (Australia, sporting) The champion team of a particular season (especially as used in Australian rules football).

Usage notes

Often capitalised, especially when used as a title. In British English, prime minister and premier are interchangeable, while in Australia and Canada, the federal leader is the prime minister and the state/provincial leaders are premiers. The term prime minister is commonly a synonym also in non-Westminster system contexts

Synonyms

• (parliamentary leader of government and leader of cabinet in a national parliament): prime minister, first minister
• (parliamentary leader of government and leader of cabinet in a state or provincial parliament): first minister
• (head of government in a non-Westminster system): prime minister
• (second-in-command on a ship): first lieutenant, first mate

Derived terms

• minor premier
• premieress
• premierial
• premiership

Translations

prime minister of a country — see also prime minister

• Spanish: premier (es) m or f

Australia, Canada: head of a state or provincial government

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 省長 / 省长 (saang² zoeng²) (provincial), 州長 / 州长 (zau¹ zoeng²) (state)

  Mandarin: 省長 / 省长 (zh) (shěngzhǎng) (provincial), 州長 / 州长 (zh) (zhōuzhǎng) (state)

• Esperanto: ĉefministro, ministroprezidanto, premiero
• Finnish: osavaltion pääministeri, provinssin pääministeri
• French: premier ministre (fr) m
• Macedonian: премие́р (mk) m (premiér)
• Polish: premier (pl) m
• Russian: премье́р (ru) m (premʹjér), премье́р-мини́стр (ru) m (premʹjér-minístr)
• Spanish: premier (es) m or f

nautical slang: the second-in-command officer of a ship

• Bulgarian: втори офицер (vtori oficer)

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

• German: ^{(please verify)} Ministerpräzident m
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} statsminister (sv) c

See also

• premiere
• king, queen, president
• governor
• first minister

Verb

premier (third-person singular simple present premiers, present participle premiering, simple past and past participle premiered)

1. To perform, display or exhibit for the first time.

   The composer invited all his friends when they premiered the movie he orchestrated, we got to see it before anyone but the crew.

   • 1998, John Herschel Baron, Intimate Music: A History of the Idea of Chamber Music, page 231:

     Beethoven at first promised Schuppanzigh the right to premier Opus 127, but Linke, cellist in Schuppanzigh′s Quartet, had also received Beethoven′s permission to premier the work at a special benefit concert for himself.

   • 2000, W. Royal Stokes, Living the Jazz Life: Conversations With Forty Musicians About Their Careers in Jazz, page 97:

     So what I want to do is try to premier the new piece with the other piece, and have just a big splash in the city.

   • 2010, Murry R. Nelson, The Rolling Stones: A Musical Biography, page 56:

     To premier the record and to show that they were still able to perform, the Stones made a surprise appearance at the New Musical Express Poll Winners Concert on May 12 in Wembley Stadium.

2. To govern in the role of premier.

Anagrams

• reprime

Dutch

Alternative forms

• (eye dialect) prumjee

Etymology

Shortening of French premier ministre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /prəˈmjeː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pre‧mier
• Rhymes: -eː

Noun

premier m (plural premiers, diminutive premiertje n)

1. prime minister

   Synonym: minister-president

Derived terms

• premierbonus
• premierschap

French

French numbers ^(edit)

		10
	←  0	1	2  → [a], [b]	10  →
Cardinal: un     Ordinal: premier     Ordinal abbreviation: 1er     Multiplier: simple     Fractional: entier
French Wikipedia article on 1

Alternative forms

• 1^er (abbreviation, in general)
• I^er (abbreviation, after names)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French premier, from Old French premier, from Latin prīmārius. Doublet of primaire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁə.mje/, (in liaison) /pʁə.mje.ʁ‿/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Adjective

premier (feminine première, masculine plural premiers, feminine plural premières)

1. (ordinal number) first

   Le premier élément de la liste est un zéro.

   The first element of the list is zero.

2. prime (number etc)

Derived terms

• à la première heure
• à première vue
• au premier abord
• au premier chef
• dans un premier temps
• de la première heure
• de premier choix
• de premier ordre
• de premier plan
• de première
• du premier coup
• en premier lieu
• être aux premières loges
• faire le premier pas
• faire ses premières armes
• il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte
• jeune premier
• joueur de premier but
• la tête la première
• matière première
• nombre premier
• premier arrivé, premier servi
• premier but
• premier de cordée
• premier degré
• premier jet
• premier ministre
• premier plan
• premier venu
• premier violon
• première base
• première classe
• première fois
• Première Guerre mondiale
• première ministre
• première personne
• première pierre
• premiers entre eux
• premiers secours
• premiers soins
• se moquer comme de sa première chemise de

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: premye
• → Portuguese: premiê

Noun

premier m (plural premiers, feminine première)

1. first

   Il est le premier.

   He is the first.

2. premier
3. prime minister

Descendants

• → Brazilian Portuguese: premiê, premier (unadapted form)

Adverb

premier

1. first

   Il joue premier

   he is playing first

Further reading

• “premier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• empirer, réprime, réprimé

Hungarian

Alternative forms

• prömier (nonstandard)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈprɛmijɛr]
• Hyphenation: pre‧mi‧er
• Rhymes: -ɛr

Noun

premier (plural premierek)

1. premiere (the first showing of a film, play or other form of entertainment)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	premier	premierek
accusative	premiert	premiereket
dative	premiernek	premiereknek
instrumental	premierrel	premierekkel
causal-final	premierért	premierekért
translative	premierré	premierekké
terminative	premierig	premierekig
essive-formal	premierként	premierekként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	premierben	premierekben
superessive	premieren	premiereken
adessive	premiernél	premiereknél
illative	premierbe	premierekbe
sublative	premierre	premierekre
allative	premierhez	premierekhez
elative	premierből	premierekből
delative	premierről	premierekről
ablative	premiertől	premierektől
non-attributive possessive – singular	premieré	premiereké
non-attributive possessive – plural	premieréi	premierekéi

Possessive forms of premier

possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	premierem	premierjeim
2nd person sing.	premiered	premierjeid
3rd person sing.	premierje	premierjei
1st person plural	premierünk	premierjeink
2nd person plural	premieretek	premierjeitek
3rd person plural	premierjük	premierjeik

Derived terms

• filmpremier

Further reading

• premier in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from English premiere, première, from French première. Doublet of première.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /preˈmi.ɛr/, [preˈmi.ɛr]
• Rhymes: -ɛr
• Hyphenation: pre‧mi‧er

Noun

premier (plural premier-premier)

1. premiere, première

Further reading

• “premier”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English premier, itself a borrowing from French premier, ultimately from Classical Latin prīmārius. Doublet of primaio, primiero, and primario.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈprɛ.mjer/
• Rhymes: -ɛmjer
• Hyphenation: prè‧mier

Noun

premier m or f by sense (invariable)

1. premier, prime minister (or similar title)

Derived terms

• vicepremier

Anagrams

• reprime

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French premier, from Latin primarius.

Adjective

premier m (feminine singular premiere, masculine plural premiers, feminine plural premieres)

1. first (ordinal number)

Descendants

• French: premier

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

premier m

1. indefinite plural of premie

Old French

Alternative forms

• premer, primer, primur

Etymology

From Latin prīmārius.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /prəˈmi͜ɛɾ/

Adjective

premier m (oblique and nominative feminine singular premiere)

1. first

Declension

	Case	masculine	feminine	neuter
singular	subject	premiers	premiere	premier
	oblique	premier			premiere	premier
plural	subject	premier	premieres		premier
	oblique	premiers			premieres	premier

Derived terms

• premierement

Adverb

premier

1. first

Noun

premier oblique singular, m (oblique plural premiers, nominative singular premiers, nominative plural premier)

1. first

   saver ke le tenant fut le primer ke entra

   to know that the tenant was the first who entered

2. beginning; start

Descendants

• Middle French: premier
  • French: premier
  • → English: premier
• Norman: preunmyi

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈprɛ.mjɛr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmjɛr
• Syllabification: pre‧mier

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-

Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-der.

Proto-Italic *pri

Proto-Indo-European *-yōs

Proto-Indo-European *-(t)m̥mos

Proto-Indo-European *-is(t)m̥mós

Proto-Italic *-isəmos

Proto-Italic *prīzmos

Latin prīmus

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -ārius

Latin prīmārius

Old French premier

Middle French premier

French premierbor.

Polish premier

Borrowed from French premier. First attested in the 19th century. Compare Kashubian premiér / premiéra and Silesian prymier.

Noun

premier m pers (female equivalent premier or premierka, related adjective premierowski)

1. (government) prime minister (chief member of the cabinet and head of the government, especially in a parliamentary democracy; often the leader of the majority party)
   1. (government) Prime Minister of Poland (head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland)

      Synonym: prezes Rady Ministrów

Declension

Declension of premier

	singular	plural
nominative	premier	premierzy/premiery (deprecative)
genitive	premiera	premierów
dative	premierowi	premierom
accusative	premiera	premierów
instrumental	premierem	premierami
locative	premierze	premierach
vocative	premierze	premierzy

Noun

premier f (indeclinable, male equivalent premier)

1. (government) female equivalent of premier (“prime minister”) (chief member of the cabinet and head of the government, especially in a parliamentary democracy; often the leader of the majority party)

Derived terms

noun

• premierostwo

Alternative forms

• premjer (pre-reform orthography (1936))

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), premier is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 0 times in scientific texts, 60 times in news, 8 times in essays, 1 time in fiction, and 6 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 75 times, making it the 861st most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

premier f

1. genitive plural of premiera

Further reading

• “premier”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “premier”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)
• premier in PWN's encyclopedia
• premier in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French premier.

Noun

premier m (plural premieri)

1. prime minister

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	premier	premierul	premieri	premierii
genitive-dative	premier	premierului	premieri	premierilor
vocative	premierule		premierilor

Spanish

Alternative forms

• première

Etymology

Borrowed from French premier (literally “first”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɾeˈmjeɾ/ [pɾeˈmjeɾ]
  • Rhymes: -eɾ
• IPA^(key): /ˈpɾemjeɾ/ [ˈpɾe.mjeɾ]
  • Rhymes: -emjeɾ
• Syllabification: pre‧mier

Noun

premier m or f by sense (plural premiers or premieres)

1. premier (head of government)

Further reading

• “premier”, in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas [Panhispanic Dictionary of Uncertainties] (in Spanish), 2nd edition, Royal Spanish Academy; Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, 2023, →ISBN
• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “premier”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA

• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “première”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA

Swedish

Noun

premier

1. indefinite plural of premie

Tatar

Noun

premier

1. Latin spelling of премьер (prem-yır)