princeps

Borrowed from Latin prī̆nceps (“first, foremost”). Doublet of prince and principe.

• IPA^(key): /ˈprɪn.sɛps/, /ˈprɪŋ.kɛps/
• Rhymes: -ɪnsɛps, -ɪŋkɛps

princeps (plural principes)

1. (Ancient Rome) Title of the Roman emperor during the principate.
   • 1984, Karl Christ, The Romans: An Introduction to Their History and Civilisation, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 126:

     Its special characteristics were that the princeps was not governed by any law of procedure or confined to a particular place of judgment and, moreover, had complete freedom in the composition of his consilium.

2. One who, or that which, is foremost, original, etc.
3. (printing) The editio princeps, or first edition of a book.

• prince
• principate
• principicide

• Crippens

From Latin princeps. Doublet of prins.

• Audio:

  (file)

princeps m (uncountable)

1. princeps; Roman emperor

• principaat
• prins, prinses

From Proto-Italic *priisemokaps by syncope. By surface analysis, prīmus (“first”) +‎ -ceps (“catcher”). Compare Old English fruma (“chief, prince, ruler”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpriːŋ.kɛps], [ˈprɪŋ.kɛps]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈprin̠ʲ.t͡ʃeps]
• The length of the first vowel might have varied, being subject to one or more rounds of Osthoff's Law which shortened vowels before an /n/ in the same syllable. Ancient Greek πρῖγκιψ (prînkips) shows there was a pronunciation prīnceps with long /iː/, which must have been maintained by analogy with prīmus. On the other hand, a pronunciation prĭnceps with short /i/ in the first syllable is implied by statements made by the late Latin grammarians Servius and Pompeius^[1][2][3] (Servius wrote in the late fourth century or early fifth century; Pompeius wrote in the fifth century and used Servius as a resource). A short vowel in the first syllable is also implied by archaic Italian prence^[4][5] and prencipe (alternative forms of principe) assuming that these are inherited forms: Grandgent 1927 instead explains prence as a borrowing from French, where nasalized vowels came to be phonetically lowered, and suggests prencipe is a hybrid between this borrowed form and principe.^[6]

prī̆nceps (genitive prī̆ncipis); third-declension one-termination adjective

1. first, foremost
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 1.12:

     Ita sive casu sive consilio deorum immortalium quae pars civitatis Helvetiae insignem calamitatem populo Romano intulerat, ea princeps poenam persolvit.

     Thus, whether by chance or by the design of the immortal gods, that part of the Helvetian state which had brought a signal calamity upon the Roman people, was the first to pay the penalty.

2. chief, distinguished

Third-declension one-termination adjective.

• (first): prīmus

• prī̆nceps cīvitātis (“first citizen”) (a title of the Roman Emperors, beginning with Caesar Augustus)
• prī̆nceps senātūs (“first among senators”) (a title of the leader of the Roman Senate, ending with the Roman Empire)

prī̆nceps m or f (genitive prī̆ncipis); third declension

1. a leader, first man or woman, head
   • The official Style of the British sovereign:

     Carolus III, Deī Grātiā Britanniārum Rēgnōrumque Suōrum Cēterōrum Rēx, Cōnsortiōnis Populōrum Prīnceps, Fideī Dēfēnsor

     Charles III, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain <and Northern Ireland> and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith

2. a principal person
3. an author, originator, founder
4. a chief, director
5. a prince, sovereign
6. (military, in the plural) company or division of the second line of soldiers

Third-declension noun.

• (prince): prīncipissa f

• “princeps”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “princeps”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "princeps", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• princeps in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be considered the foremost orator: primum or principem inter oratores locum obtinere
    
  • to be considered the foremost orator: oratorum principem esse
    
  • to be the chief man in the state: principem civitatis esse
    
  • to hold the first position in the state: principem in re publica locum obtinere
    
  • statesmen: principes rem publicam administrantes or simply principes
    
  • to occupy the first, second position in the state: principem (primum), secundum locum dignitatis obtinere
    
  • the aristocracy (as a leading class in government): principes or primores
    
• “princeps”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• princeps in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “princeps”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Unadapted borrowing from Latin princeps.

princeps m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. princeps

princeps m (uncountable)

1. princeps