primiceryn.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin primicerius the first among those holding a similar office (late 4th cent. with respect to officials in the Roman empire; 5th cent. with respect to church dignitaries: see note below) < classical Latin prīmus prime adj. + cēra wax (see cere n.) + -ius , suffix forming adjectives, with reference to the wax-coated tablets on which the names of office-holders were inscribed. In δ. forms after French primicier senior ecclesiastical dignitary (1636 in this sense; late 14th cent. or earlier in Middle French denoting a person occupying the first rank in social order, also the first candle-bearer, or (in forms premicere , premissere ) a precentor). Compare primicerio n.Post-classical Latin primicerius denoted a variety of officials, as precentor (6th cent.), provost (10th cent.), frequently in various collocations, as primicerius notariorum chief clerk or secretary (5th cent. in civil and ecclesiastical context), primicerius capellae head of the chapel royal (8th cent. in a British source). Compare the following earlier unassimilated borrowing of the post-classical Latin word: ▸ a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 318 Þey þat serueþ in chirche of wexe candels ben y-cleped ceroferarij, as he þat serueþ in halles of kynges and of bisshopes ben y-cleped primicerij, as he seiþ. In β form, with alteration of the ending, perhaps by association with words in -ary suffix¹. In γ form apparently by association with Latin words in -eus (see -eous suffix).