prior

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪ.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪ.(ə)ɹ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: pri‧or

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.^[1][2]

The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.^[1][3]

prior (not comparable)

1. Coming before in order or time; earlier, former, previous.

   Synonyms: advance, antecedent, anterior; see also Thesaurus:former

   His prior residence was smaller than his current one.

   I had no prior knowledge you were coming.

   • 1739, [David Hume], “Rules by which to Judge of Causes and Effects”, in A Treatise of Human Nature: […], book I (Of the Understanding), London: […] John Noon, […], →OCLC, part III (Of Knowledge and Probability), pages 303–304:

     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.

   • 1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter VI, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book I, page 83:

     Lady Marney, duly warned of the impending catastrophe, was experiencing all the advantages of prior information.

   • 1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “A Sculptor’s Studio”, in The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 148–149:

     "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."

   • 1886, John Ruskin, “Rome”, in Præterita. Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life, volume I, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 280:

     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.

   • 1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter XIII, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 152:

     [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.

2. More important or significant.
3. (Bayesian statistics) 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.

   Antonym: posterior

• Etymologically, the antonym of prior is ulterior (“happening later, subsequent”) (compare primate (“earliest, first”) (obsolete) and ultimate (“final, last”)). However, as this word is regarded as archaic, typically either posterior or subsequent is used as an antonym, though they are more formal than prior, and are etymological antonyms with other words—anterior and precedent, respectively.
• If an opposing pair of words is desired, instead of prior, former (antonym: latter) or previous (antonym: next) can be used.

• a priori
• priority

prior (comparative more prior, superlative most prior)

1. Chiefly followed by to: in advance, before, previously.

   Synonyms: ago, hitherto

   The doctor had known three months prior.

   • 2019 April 14, Alex McLevy, “Winter is Here on Game of Thrones’ Final Season Premiere (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 18 December 2020:

     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.

prior (plural priors)

1. (Bayesian statistics) 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. [from 20th c.]

   Antonym: posterior

   1. (by extension) In the rationalsphere: a belief supported by previous evidence or experience that one can use to make inferences about the future.
      • 2022 July 29, Dan Roller, “Maran Partners Fund Q2 2022 Letter”, in Seeking Alpha‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-12-08:

        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.

      • 2022 November 8, Alex Shephard, “The Cards were always Stacked against Democrats”, in Michael Tomasky, editor, The New Republic‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The Republic Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-04:

        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.

2. (Canada, US, law enforcement, chiefly in the plural) A previous arrest or criminal conviction on someone's criminal record. [from 19th c.]

   Synonym: antecedent

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published 1966, →OCLC, page 47:

     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.

• revise one's priors
• update one's priors

From Middle English priour, prior (“head or deputy head of a monastery or other religious house; predecessor; superior”),^[4] 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.^[5]

prior (plural priors)

1. (Christianity) A high-ranking member of a religious house or religious order.
   1. In an abbey, the person ranking just after the abbot, appointed as his deputy; a prior claustral.

      (abbot’s deputy): Synonyms: dean, provost

      • 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:

        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: […]

   2. 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 term: prioress

   3. The head friar of a house of friars.
   4. The head of the Arrouaisian, Augustinian, and formerly Premonstratensian religious orders.
   5. An honorary position held by a priest in some cathedrals.
      • 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:

        [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; […]

2. (historical)
   1. A chief magistrate of the Republic of Florence (1115–1569) in what is now Italy.
      • 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:

        [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.

   2. The elected head of a guild of craftsmen or merchants in some countries in Europe and South America.
3. (obsolete)
   1. A person who is the earliest or most prominent in a field; the chief.
   2. (business) The head of a company.

• priour (obsolete)

• priory

•   prior convictions on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   prior (ecclesiastical) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   prior probability on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   prior (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Latin priōrem.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pɾiˈo]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pɾiˈoɾ]

prior m (plural priors, feminine priora)

1. prior (a high-ranking member of a monastery)

• priorat
• prioritat

• “prior” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “prior”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “prior” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “prior” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Proto-Italic *priōs, from earlier *prijōs, from *pri + *-jōs, thus the comparative degree of Old Latin *pri (“before”), from Proto-Italic *pri from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“beyond”), *pró (“before”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpri.or/, [ˈpriɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpri.or/, [ˈpriːor]

prior (neuter prius, superlative prīmus); third-declension comparative adjective

1. former, prior, previous, earlier (preceding in time)

   priore anno ― the year before, the previous year; during the year before

   priore aestate ― the previous summer

   priore nocte ― the previous night

   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 26.1:

     Q. Fuluio Ap. Claudio, prioris anni consulibus, prorogatum imperium est atque exercitus quos habebant decreti, adiectumque ne a Capua quam obsidebant abscederent priusquam expugnassent.

     The military authority of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, consuls of the previous year, was extended and the armies which they had were decided upon, and it was added as a proviso that they should not withdraw from Capua, which they were besieging, until they conquered it.

2. the first, the original
3. in front
4. (figuratively) better, superior
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.321–323:

     “[...] tē propter eundem / exstīnctus pudor et, quā sōlā sīdera adībam, / fāma prior. [...]”

     “Likewise, because of you, my sense of honor is gone, and a better reputation which was my only way to the stars.”
     (As a widow, Dido's chastity and devotion to the memory of her first husband would have been well-regarded in Augustan Rome.)

5. (substantive, Medieval Latin) abbot, prior

• This adjective has no positive form; rather, it serves as the comparative (prior) and superlative (prīmus) of the preposition prae. (Compare the preposition post, with comparative posterior and superlative postremus).

lacks abl.sg. in -i, cp. [[a priori]] and e.g. [https://archive.org/details/allengreenoughsn00alleiala/page/52/mode/2up Allen & Greenough] & [https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=priori etymonline.com]

• Third-declension comparative adjective.

• ā priōrī
• priōrēs
• prius
• priusquam

• prīmus

• → Catalan: prior
• → Czech: převor
• → Dutch: prior
• → English: prior
• → Finnish: priori
• → French: prieur
• → Irish: prióir
• → Galician: prior
• → Italian: priore
• → Middle High German: prior
  • German: Prior
• → Norwegian Bokmål: priori
• → Polish: przeor
• → Romanian: prior
• → Russian: приор (prior)
• → Spanish: prior
• → Portuguese: prior

• “prior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “prior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• prior 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)
• prior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[4], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • last year: superiore, priore anno
    
  • (ambiguous) there is nothing I am more interested in than..: nihil antiquius or prius habeo quam ut (nihil mihi antiquius or potius est, quam ut)
    

From Latin prior.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɾjoɾ/ [ˈpɾjoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: prior

prior m (plural priores, feminine priora, feminine plural prioras)

1. prior (a high-ranking member of a monastery)

• “prior”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014