Defn: First; original; primary. [Obs.] "The primer English kings." Drayton. Primer fine (O. Eng. Law), a fine due to the king on the writ or commencement of a suit by fine. Blackstone. — 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. Blackstone.
PRIMER Prim"er, n. Etym: [Originally, the book read at prime, the first canonical hour. LL. primae liber. See Prime, n., 4.]
1. 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. Bp. Stillingfleet.
2. 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. Chaucer.
3. (Print.)
Defn: 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.
PRIMERO Pri*me"ro, n. Etym: [Sp. primera, fr. primero first, from L. primarius. See Premier.]
Defn: A game at cards, now unknown. Shak.
PRIMEROLE
Prim"er*ole, n. (Bot.)