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Origin and history of primate

primate(n.)

"high bishop, preeminent ecclesiastical official of a province," having a certain jurisdiction, as vicar of the pope, over other bishops in his province, c. 1200, from Old French primat and directly from Medieval Latin primatem (nominative primas) "church primate," noun use of Late Latin adjective primas "of the first rank, chief, principal," from primus "first" (see prime (adj.)).

The meaning "animal of the biological order including monkeys and humans" is attested from 1876, from Modern Latin Primates, the order name (Linnæus), from plural of Latin primas; so called for being regarded as the "highest" order of mammals (originally also including bats).

also from c. 1200

Entries linking to primate

prime(adj.)

late 14c., "first, original, first in order of time," from Old French prime and directly from Latin primus "first, the first, first part," figuratively "chief, principal; excellent, distinguished, noble" (source also of Italian and Spanish primo), from Proto-Italic *prismos, superlative of PIE *preis- "before," from root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before, first, chief."

The meaning "of fine quality, of the first excellence" is from c. 1400. The meaning "first in rank, degree, or importance" is from 1610s in English. Arithmetical sense (as in prime number, one indivisible without a remainder except by 1) is from 1560s; prime meridian "the meridian of the earth from which longitude is measured, that of Greenwich, England," is from 1878. Prime time originally (c. 1500) meant "spring time;" the broadcasting sense of "peak tuning-in period" is attested by 1961.

primatology(n.)

"the study of (zoological) primates," 1939, from primate (n.) in the "higher ape" sense + -ology. Related: Primatological; primatologist.

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Trends of primate

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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prelate
c. 1200, "ecclesiastic of high rank, bishop, pope, superior of a religious house," from Old French prelat (Modern French prélate) and directly from Medieval Latin prelatus "clergyman of high rank," from Latin praelatus "one preferred," noun use of past participle of praeferre "pl
lemur
The oldest usage of "lemur" for a primate that we are aware of is in Linnaeus's catalog of the Museum of King Adolf Frederick...
indri
1839, European name for the babakoto, a lemur-like arboreal primate of Madagascar (Indris Lichanotus); the common story since...
creationism
James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin...
esprit
1590s, "liveliness, wit, vivacity," from French esprit "spirit, mind," from Old French espirit "spirit, soul" (12c.), from Latin spiritus "spirit" (see spirit (n.)). For initial e-, see e-. Esprit de corps, recorded from 1780 in English, preserves the usual French sense. French a
priest
Middle English prēst, "cleric ranking below a bishop and above a deacon, a parish priest," from Old English preost, which probably was shortened from the older Germanic form represented by Old Saxon and Old High German prestar, Old Frisian prestere, all from Vulgar Latin *prester
sprite
c. 1300, sprit, formerly also spright, a doublet of spirit (n.) in any of its then-current senses, from Old French esprit "spirit," from Latin spiritus (spirit (n.) retains the Latin form). So in Middle English and after sprite could mean "breath; the principle of life; the Holy
stripe
"a line or band of a different color in cloth," early 15c., from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German stripe "stripe, streak," from Proto-Germanic *stripan (source also of Danish stribe "a striped fabric," German Streifen "stripe"). These are said to be from a PIE root *strig- "to s
pea
"the seed of a hardy leguminous vine," a well-known article of food, early or mid-17c., a false singular from Middle English pease (plural pesen), which was both single and collective (as wheat, corn) but the "s" sound was mistaken for the plural inflection. From Old English pise
ape
Old English apa (fem. ape) "an ape, a monkey," from Proto-Germanic *apan (source also of Old Saxon apo, Old Norse api, Dutch aap, German affe), probably a borrowed word, perhaps from Celtic (compare Old Irish apa, Welsh epa) or Slavic (compare Old Bohemian op, Slovak opitza), and

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