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Webster 1913 Edition


Premier

Pre′mi-er

,
Adj.
[F.
premier
, fr. L.
primarius
of the first rank, principal, fr.
primus
the first. See
Primary
,
Prime
,
Adj.
]
1.
First; chief; principal;
as, the
premier
place;
premier
minister.
Camden. Swift.
2.
Most ancient; – said of the peer bearing the oldest title of his degree.

Pre′mi-er

,
Noun.
The first minister of state; the prime minister.

Webster 1828 Edition


Premier

PRE'MIER

,
Adj.
[L. primus, first.] First; chief; principal; as the premier place; premier minister.

PRE'MIER

,
Noun.
The first minister of state; the prime minister.

Definition 2024


Premier

Premier

See also: premier and premiér

German

Noun

Premier m (genitive Premiers, plural Premiers, feminine Premierin)

  1. premier, prime minister

Synonyms

Derived terms

premier

premier

See also: Premier and premiér

English

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.

Translations

See also

Noun

premier (plural premiers)

  1. (politics, Britain, Westminster system) The leader of the 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 government leader in parliament and leader of cabinet in a state or provincial parliamentary system.
      • 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, John Spoehr (editor), 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, 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

Translations

See also

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.

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /prɛ.ˈmiːr/, /prɛ.ˈmjeː/

Noun

premier m (plural premiers, diminutive premiertje n)

  1. prime minister

Derived terms


French

Alternative forms

  • (abbreviation, in general) 1erm, 1reor 1èref
  • (abbreviation, after names) I

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pʁə.mje/

Adjective

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

  1. first
    Le premier élément de la liste est un zéro.
    The first element of the list is zero.
  2. prime (number etc)

Related terms

Noun

premier m (plural premiers, feminine première)

  1. first
    Il est le premier.
    He is the first.
  2. premier
  3. prime minister

Adverb

premier

  1. first
    Il joue premier
    he is playing first

See also

Anagrams


Hungarian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈprɛmiʲɛr]
  • Hyphenation: pre‧mi‧er

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
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


Italian

Etymology

Borrowing from English premier or French premier.

Noun

premier m, f (invariable)

  1. premier, prime minister (or similar title)

Anagrams


Middle French

Etymology

From Old French premier, from Latin primarius.

Adjective

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

  1. (ordinal) first (ordinal number)

Descendants


Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

premier m

  1. indefinite plural of premie

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin prīmārius.

Adjective

premier m (oblique and nominative feminine singular premiere)

  1. first

Declension

Derived terms

Adverb

premier

  1. first

Noun

premier 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


Polish

Etymology

Borrowing from French premier (first).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈprɛmʲɛr]

Noun

premier m pers

  1. prime minister

Declension

Noun

premier f

  1. genitive plural of premiera

Spanish

Etymology

Cf. French and English premier.

Noun

premier m, f (plural premieres)

  1. premier (head of government)

Swedish

Noun

premier

  1. indefinite plural of premie

Tatar

Noun

premier

  1. premier, prime minister.

References