*SET-U

Chambers (1908)

Prior

Read this edition’s complete source entry.

Englishe-38699-4130Historical source · not a reviewed *SET-U verdictRead the source ↗

This edition’s origin note

[L. prior, former, comp. from pro-, in front.]

Original source wording, not an independently verified *SET-U conclusion.

The complete extracted entry

e-38699-4130

Historical source text, not a reviewed *SET-U analysis. Claims and terminology belong to this edition.

Prior, prī′or, adj. former: previous: coming before in time.—n. the head of a priory: (in Italy) formerly a chief magistrate:—fem. Prī′oress.—ns. Prī′orāte, Prī′orship, the government or office of a prior: the time during which a prior is in office; Prior′ity, state of being prior or first in time, place, or rank: preference; Prī′ory, a convent of either sex, under a prior or prioress, and next in rank below an abbey. [L. prior, former, comp. from pro-, in front.]

Source locator ebook:38699;section:dictionary;paragraph:4149;continuation-paragraphs:0;html-characters:1574419-1575210

Where interpretation must slow down

  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
  • Historical text may contain offensive, obsolete or inaccurate language and classifications.
  • Public-domain determination applies to the United States; other jurisdictions require separate confirmation.
  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

An old root, gloss or concordance number does not determine the meaning of every later use. A word’s origin and its modern meaning are different questions.

This page does not invent a manuscript attestation, a sound-change sequence, a modern scholarly verdict or a complete ancestor tree. Missing detail is a limit of this source record, not necessarily a limit of scholarship.

Find other records with this spelling →

Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

The full extracted entry is rendered as plain text. Formatting and navigation are added by *SET-U; source wording is not silently rewritten as new analysis.

Coverage: the complete A–Z main-entry clusters and dictionary Addenda. Derivative words remain within their original entry clusters. Non-dictionary appendices and standalone illustrations are excluded.

Original entry or artifact ↗Source edition and credits ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source audit fields
Source locator
ebook:38699;section:dictionary;paragraph:4149;continuation-paragraphs:0;html-characters:1574419-1575210
Source record SHA-256
9b893193b8fcef4fb4248fa625e9000b1040a229bebb7f2792f5e993d49a9086
Records SHA-256
fe553f4cc08e11f2f222d5bd4706ae9585f8951c8374a3edc0fcc03264dbbea9
Published snapshot
00f489ccce5cccc78b796c10de36f4f0d18709073434ccf9285eb201d4ac39ca
Acquired
2026-11-05T09:16:04.758Z · acquisition date, not first attestation
Parser
chambers-1908-1
  • Source artifact ↗ · 3,407,997 bytes555d2991c0d7cc611a61c79935db172efe6bb5becb074253788d90dafd0b6b08
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac
  • Source artifact ↗ · 3,773,892 bytes912196a924c239e3ccc550bbb1f8515ce77bbd271ebf777b27fc468174ac32f8
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac
  • Source artifact ↗ · 2,804,092 bytes4a647fbb3ce598efbe36554cdc02b070b3f5edf5ba2e41fcd36328f18a26c4e8
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac
  • Source artifact ↗ · 4,392,053 bytes222c6725b7618cc03250863a64cce04c859c3378caa03b347376611c0668b33d
  • Source artifact ↗ · 537 bytes781eff3f628c95b2a1cae38d73f1c2fa4672ffd6b08e38f65c1f5ca5a4e663ac