prior
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɹaɪ.ə/
ipa: /ˈpɹaɪ.(ə)ɹ/
rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: priors
form: priour
Etymology: From Middle English priour, prior (“head or deputy head of a monastery or other religious house; predecessor; superior”), from Old English prior, from Anglo-Norman priour, prior, priur, and Old French prior, priur (modern French prieur), and directly from their etymon Latin prior (“ancestor; predecessor”) (whence Late Latin prior (“superior of a religious house or order; abbot; deputy abbot; head of a guild”)), a noun use of prior (“former, previous, prior”, adjective): see etymology 1.
Senses: examples: text: It is not yet an hundred yere a goe, ſince that ſame mayſter doctour was butler in the ſame houſe, whereof I was maiſter and praiour: […]
ref: 1532, Thomas More, “The Confutacion of [William] Tyndale’s Aunswere […]. The Eyght Booke in which is Confuted Doctour [Robert] Barnes Church.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, page 791, column 1:
topics: Christianity
glosses: A high-ranking member of a religious house or religious order.
In an abbey, the person ranking just after the abbot, appointed as his deputy; a prior claustral.
synonyms: dean
provost
topics: Christianity
glosses: A high-ranking member of a religious house or religious order.
The head of a priory (“a monastery which is usually a branch of an abbey”), or some other minor or smaller monastery; a prior conventual.
coordinate_terms: prioress
topics: Christianity
glosses: A high-ranking member of a religious house or religious order.
The head friar of a house of friars.
topics: Christianity
glosses: A high-ranking member of a religious house or religious order.
The head of the Arrouaisian, Augustinian, and formerly Premonstratensian religious orders.
examples: text: [I]t hath appertained to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for the space of four hundred years or thereabouts to have spiritual jurisdiction over all your Grace's subjects dwelling within the provinces; […] in the meantime of vacation the same privilege resteth in the churches of Canterbury and York; and is executed by the prior, dean and chapter of the said churches; […]
ref: 1856, James Anthony Froude, “The Parliament of 1529”, in History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], →OCLC, pages 216–217:
topics: Christianity
glosses: A high-ranking member of a religious house or religious order.
An honorary position held by a priest in some cathedrals.
examples: text: [F]irſt of all among themſelves of the ancienteſt they chuſe three heads or chiefs vvhich they call Priors; and alſo of the youngeſt among them they chuſe tvvo vvho perform the office of Secretaries. The Priors ſit dovvn, having before them a table upon vvhich are placed tvvo balloting boxes of that ſort that are uſed in the Great Council; in one of vvhich are put 40 balls, marked vvith a certain mark, that no deceit may be uſed. The reſt of the 41 ſit alſo dovvn, each vvhere he pleaſes. […] Then they are called one by one before the three Priors, and each one vvrites in his Schedule the name of him vvhom he vvould have to be Duke, and leaves it upon the table.
ref: 1673, John Ray, “Of Venice”, in Observations Topographical, Moral, & Physiological; Made in a Journey through part of the Low-countries, Germany, Italy, and France: […], London: […] John Martyn, printer to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 184:
glosses: A chief magistrate of the Republic of Florence (1115–1569) in what is now Italy.
glosses: The elected head of a guild of craftsmen or merchants in some countries in Europe and South America.
glosses: A person who is the earliest or most prominent in a field; the chief.
topics: business
glosses: The head of a company.
Derived terms: word: alien prior
word: Ditton Priors
word: grand prior
word: great prior
word: Hurstbourne Priors
word: Jeffreys prior
word: prioracy
word: prioral
word: prior claustral
word: prior conventual
word: prioress
word: priorly
word: priorship
word: Salford Priors
word: Stoke Prior
word: subprior
word: Swaffham Prior
Related terms: priory