One who, or that which, primes; specifically, an instrument or device for priming; esp., a cap, tube, or water containing percussion powder or other capable for igniting a charge of gunpowder.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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