princeps

Borrowed from Latin princeps (“first, foremost”). Doublet of prince.

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.

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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): /ˈpriːn.keps/, [ˈpriːŋkɛps̠] or IPA^(key): /ˈprin.keps/, [ˈprɪŋkɛps̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈprin.t͡ʃeps/, [ˈprin̠ʲt͡ʃeps]
• Note: 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 with long /ī/, which must have been maintained by analogy with prīmus. On the other hand, an archaic Italian form prence points to a form in /ĭ/.^[1][2] See also Italian prencipe, an alternative form of principe.

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 (2016 July 16 (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