prior
Part of speech: adj
adv
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: government
law-enforcement
Etymology: The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin prior (“earlier, former, previous, prior; in front; (figurative) better, superior”), from Proto-Italic *priōs (“earlier, previous”, literally “more before”), ultimately from *pri (“before”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pró (“leading to, toward”) and its etymon *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-jōs (suffix forming comparative adjectives). Doublet of before, fore, and former.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.
Inflected forms:
form: more prior
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: most prior
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: priors
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Coming before in order or time; earlier, former, previous.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: His prior residence was smaller than his current one.
I had no prior knowledge you were coming.
Since therefore 'tis poſſible for all objects to become cauſes or effects to each other, it may be proper to fix ſome general rules, by vvhich vve may knovv vvhen they really are ſo. […] 2. The cauſe must be prior to the effect.
Lady Marney, duly warned of the impending catastrophe, was experiencing all the advantages of prior information.
"As these busts in the block of marble," though Miriam, "so does our individual fate exist in the limestone of time. We fancy that we carve it out; but its ultimate shape is prior to all our action."
These reconstructions took place with so great ease and rapidity at Abbeville, […] that there is now scarce vestige left of any building prior to the fifteenth century.
[T]he Mayor, […] seemed to have schooled himself into a course of strict mechanical rightness towards this woman of prior claim, at any expense to the later one, and to his own sentiments.
gloss: More important or significant.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Chiefly in prior probability: of the probability of an event: determined without knowledge of the occurrence of other events that bear on it, before additional data is collected.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Chiefly followed by to: in advance, before, previously.
pos: adv
examples: The doctor had known three months prior.
From the opening shots of the anonymous young Winterfell boy rushing to catch a glimpse of Jon Snow and Queen Daenerys Targaryen, hearkening back to those moments of the very first episode in which Arya rushed to do the same with an approaching King Robert Baratheon, the series is calling back to its beginning, suggesting (at least for now) that the wheel continues to turn, sending us back into a pattern begun seven seasons prior.
gloss: A prior probability distribution, that is, one determined without knowledge of the occurrence of other events that bear on it, before additional data is collected.
pos: noun
gloss: A prior probability distribution, that is, one determined without knowledge of the occurrence of other events that bear on it, before additional data is collected.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: During each of these touchpoints, I'm asking myself where and how my thesis on each holding could be wrong. I'm checking each data point as it comes in against my priors. I'm comparing management behavior to what I would be doing if I were in their shoes.
The votes are in, and our priors are confirmed. The truth is that midterms are nearly as predictable as death and taxes: The party that controls the White House always loses and often badly at that.
gloss: A previous arrest or criminal conviction on someone's criminal record.
pos: noun
tags: Canada
US
in-plural
examples: And a little later we get the routine report on his prints from Washington, and he's got a prior back in Indiana, attempted hold-up six years ago.
Related words: a priori
priority
Derived words: hyperprior
priorable
prior art
priorate
prior authorization
prioristic
prior knowledge
priorly
prior probability
prior restraint
prior to
recognition of prior learning
revise one's priors
update one's priors
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: priori
lang: Finnish
word: priorijakauma