priorityn.adj.
/prʌɪˈɒrᵻti/, U.S. /praɪˈɔrədi/ A. n.† 5. = apriority n. Obsolete. rare.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
1.
a. Precedence in order or rank. Now rare (in later use passing into sense A. 1b).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > precedence or priority
furtherheadc1380
prioritya1425
antelation1570
priory1600
pas1707
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > quality of being better or superior > [noun]
advantagea1393
prioritya1425
prerogativec1425
prestance1470
betterness1492
superioritya1500
majority1552
start1569
melioritya1586
precedence1587
superiorship1587
precedency1593
priory1600
preferency1602
preference1603
precession1613
betterhood1615
prestancy1615
eminence1702
superiorness1730
a1425 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Galba) 27562 (MED) Pride..his awin state wald hegh..in..Erthly honowre or priorte [a1400 Fairf. menske richesse & dignite], Welth or lordschip or pouste.
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 248 Þer it is semand þat þe fathur suffer þe son to hafe a prioritie.
1534 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 123 That the..Chaunr and Schollers might be befor them.., and so to spite the said Mayr and Comminaltie from their prioritie to posterioritie.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida i. iii. 86 The heauens them-selues, the plannets and this center Obserue degree, prioritie and place. View more context for this quotation
1644 J. Maxwell Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas xv. 146 How can a Society be imagined without order? and how order without priority and posteriority?
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 598 There must of necessity, be..a Priority and Posteriority..of Dignity as well as Order amongst them.
1704 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World II. xiii. 571 I mean that order of priority or posteriority, according to which this application is to be made.
1803 Lt. Gen. Stuart Let. 8 Aug. in Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) II. 190 The priority of his rank to that of Major General Wellesley would render his presence to the northward of the Kistna incompatible with a due exercise of the powers..delegated to the latter officer.
1869 M. Arnold Culture & Anarchy iv. 156 Of two disciplines laying their main stress, the one, on clear intelligence, the other, on firm obedience..the priority naturally belongs to that discipline which braces man's moral powers.
a1967 L. Hughes Coll. Poems (1995) 602 We're all in the telephone book. There's no priority—A millionaire like Rockefeller Is likely to be behind me.
1977 Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard 6 June 2/2 President Carter will not claim priority for the federal government in deciding whether or not..Concorde may land at Kennedy Airport.
b. The right to precede others or to receive something before others. Frequently with modifying adjective, as first, high, top priority.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > precedence or priority > right to precede others
priority1802
1802 Times 19 Aug. 2/1 We must give priority to more direct and specific topics which immediately concern ourselves.
1861 Sat. Rev. 14 Dec. 608 The courtesy of the American dockyard officers would probably grant to a British man-of-war priority over several merchantmen which were in need of similar accommodation.
1917 Times 10 Mar. 6/4 The Ministry of Munitions has been administering a scheme which ensured for war work and for work of national importance priority over all other work in regard to labour and materials.
1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 835/1 The labour needs of employers in war industries were graded as entitled to ‘Super-Priority’, ‘First’ or ‘Second Class Priority’, or as not deserving special treatment.
1948 ‘N. Shute’ No Highway ii. 49 I think this trip to Canada is top priority of anything that's going on at Farnborough today.
1961 B. Fergusson Watery Maze x. 237 The stratospherically high priority afforded him for the journey did not really do him much good.
2006 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 13 Jan. 20 Councillors..voted against adopting a scheme which would give priority to tackling bad parking.
c. Chiefly British. The right to proceed before other traffic.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > vehicular traffic > [noun] > right of way
right of way1860
priority1929
1929 Times 8 May 17/1 At road junctions they favour the rule that the vehicle on the more important road has priority.
1968 Highway Code 37 (caption) Give priority to vehicles from opposite direction.
1976 Economist 3 Jan. 4/3 Other schemes include fitting an electronic identification tag to all public vehicles to give them priority at traffic lights.
1988 D. Lodge Nice Work i. 14 The driver of a Ford Transit van, though he has priority, hangs back respectfully.
1992 Virginian Pilot & Ledger-Star 2 July d1/2 The left lane..gives car-poolers priority at the tunnel entrance and lets them bypass the logjam in the right lane.
1999 Earth Matters Spring 36/3 What is needed is a reconfiguring of the highway to provide priority for cyclists.
d. A thing that is regarded as more important than others; something which needs special attention. Frequently in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > that which is important > which takes precedence
preoccupation1844
priority1936
1936 Times 21 July 9/2 The function of..deciding the main priorities in all classes of munition production should be separated from all functions connected with the problem of material and supply.
1944 Daily Tel. 23 Sept. 2/2 The obvious remedy for that would be to make civil aviation priority No. 1 at the Ministry.
1960 M. Spark Ballad of Peckham Rye iii. 42 She came up with an estimate and said ‘priority’... I said, ‘Excuse me, Miss Coverdale, but I've got two priorities already.’
1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard iv. 122 There was a priority on at the Yard, all detectives were being called back.
1988 Times of India 23 Feb. i. 5/6 Among the priorities of the new government, he said, was to launch a scheme for rehabilitation of political victims.
2001 B. Rai (Un)arranged Marriage xxvi. 212 When I got back to Leicester I was going to make it a priority to get in a solid month or two of lie-ins.
2. The fact or condition of being earlier in time; the fact of preceding something or someone else.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > antecedence or being earlier > [noun]
priority?a1475
prevention1544
earliness1575
foregoinga1586
foreness1587
formerness1587
antecedency1598
anteriority1599
precedence1605
pregression1623
antecedencea1626
antecession1629
precedency1634
beforeness1635
earlierness1674
previousness1677
precursorship1856
anteriornessa1866
precession1898
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1879) VII. 273 (MED) The seetes of Cawnterbery and of Yorke not to be subiecte in eny wise to other..excepte that the oon is moore then that other for the priorite of tyme [a1387 J. Trevisa for he is of elder tyme; L. propter temporis prioratum].
1532 (c1385) Usk's Test. Loue in Wks. G. Chaucer iii. f. ccclix In dyuers tymes & in dyuers places temporel without posteriorite or priorite.
1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxxxi. 270 The preeminence of priority in birth.
a1641 T. Heywood & W. Rowley Fortune by Land & Sea (1655) ii. i. 18 I and my younger brother, I had then priority of birth.
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ iii. ii. §7 Though there might bee some priority in order of causes between them, yet there was none in order of time or duration.
1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey I. iii. Observ. 174 The dispute concerning the priority of Homer and Hesiod:..it is a demonstration that Hesiod was posterior to Homer.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xxi. 234 The advantage which Cæcilian might claim from the priority of his ordination, was destroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent, haste with which it had been performed.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. ix. 139 I prefer another's words to my own, partly as a tribute due to priority of publication.
1870 Nature 19 May 42/2 To Da Vinci,..is clearly due the priority in the discovery of these laws.
1879 H. George Progress & Poverty (1881) vii. i. 309 No priority of appropriation can give a right which will bar these equal rights of others.
1920 Mod. Lang. Jrnl. 4 295 Rambeau..states that the method was ‘invented’ in 1865... The sarcasm of his observation was possibly due to his familiarity with analogous systems developed in Germany, which could claim priority.
1991 J. C. Hogan Comm. Plays Sophocles 257 There is no agreement, however, on the priority... There is no compelling reason for the ‘more natural’ or better integrated scene being earlier.
3. Law.† b. Earlier commitment or claim. Obsolete.
a. A precedence among claims; a preference in order of payment, esp. between creditors.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > action of courts in claims or grievances > claim at law > [noun] > priority of claim
preferment1443
priority1766
1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng xii. f. 23v The lorde that the tenaunt holdeth of by priorite, shall haue the warde of the body, be it heyre male or heyre female.
1622 Let. 15 Mar. in J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1650) xiv. 58 I have also by vertue of it priority of all other his Creditors.
1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. xxxii. 511 In payment of debts he must observe the rules of priority; otherwise, on deficiency of assets, if he pays those of a lower degree first, he must answer those of a higher out of his own estate.
1869 Act 32 & 33 Victoria c. 46 §1 In the administration of the estate of every person who shall die..after [1 Jan. 1870] no debt or liability..shall be entitled to any priority or preference by reason merely that the same is secured by or arises under a bond, deed, or other instrument under seal.
1885 Law Rep.: Chancery Div. 28 178 At that time the law in Ireland gave judgment creditors priority over simple contract creditors.
1920 Times 5 Jan. 20/5 The 5½% Cumulative Preference Shares rank in priority to the Ordinary Shares for dividend.
2006 Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl. (Nexis) 12 Jan. e2 Any preference or priority which the claimant claims to be entitled to over the claims of any other or all other claimants or creditors.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > [noun] > types of tenure from two lords
priority1579
posteriority1607
1579 Rastell's Expos. Termes Lawes (new ed.) f. 101/1 And if the tenaunt holde of dyurrs Lordes diuers landes, the lorde of whome the land is holden by prioritie, that is to saye, by the more elder tenure, shall haue the wardshippe of the infant.
1607 J. Cowell Interpreter sig. Ccc4/1 A man holding lands or tenements of two lords, holdeth of his auncienter Lord by prioritie, and of his later Lord by posterioritie.
4. Taxonomy. The claim of the earliest validly published Latin name to be taken as the correct one for a particular organism. Frequently in law of priority or principle of priority.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > taxonomy > [noun] > name of species > precedence for first-published Latin name
priority1842
1842 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 109 We have no hesitation in adopting as our fundamental maxim, the ‘law of priority’, viz... The name originally given by the founder of a group or the describer of a species should be permanently retained.
1895 Amer. Naturalist 29 585 In the naming of species the principle of priority should govern, but a sure name shall not be thrust aside for a doubtful one.
1928 D. B. Swingle Textbk. Syst. Bot. vii. 68 By agreement botanists do not go back of Linnaeus' ‘Species Plantarum’ (1753) to establish priority in the publication of names.
1992 Brittonia 44 422 If, in the future, priority is extended to ordinal names, the citation for the Order Cycadales..should be changed.
2003 Trends Ecol. & Evol. 18 75/1 This is primarily because of the Principle of Priority (i.e. an older name always takes precedence), the main purpose of which is to resolve problems of synonymy and homonymy.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > idealism > [noun] > innatism or apriorism
apriority1854
apriorism1874
nativism1878
priority1890
innatism1909
1890 Cent. Dict. Priority,..4. Apriority.
B. adj. (attributive).
Of or relating to priority or priorities; that has precedence; that is considered more or most important.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [adjective] > prioritized
priority1849
prioritized1972
1849 C. Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 368 If I, a priority man called a species C. D.
1884 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 27 May 2/7 Such priority claims are inconsistent with and repugnant to the system of real property security.
1934 T. E. Lawrence Let. 8 Apr. (1938) 795 She..has no one aboard now to get her priority treatment.
1960 O. Manning Great Fortune xiii. 153 This young man might have been granted a priority flight over Europe.
1991 Which? Jan. 39/1 A money advice worker..advised them that their priority debts, such as the mortgage, should be paid first.
2004 Daily Tel. 19 Aug. 21/3 The first [extremist group] receives cold shoulder and step-motherly treatment from the media, while the second is given priority treatment by most newspapers.
Compounds
priority bond n. = preference bond n. at preference n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > stocks, shares, or bonds > [noun] > bond > types of bond
government securities1707
Sword-blade bond1707
long bond1720
government paper1774
indent1788
premium bond1820
active1835
preference bond1848
investment bond1853
mortgage bond1853
revenue bond1853
municipal bond1858
treasury-bond1858
sices1867
property bond1869
government1870
priority bond1884
municipal1888
income bonds1889
yearling1889
war baby1901
Liberty Bond1917
Liberty Loan1917
victory bond1917
corporate1922
performance bond1938
convertible1957
Eurobond1966
Euroconvertible1968
managed bond1972
muni1973
granny bond1976
bulldog bond1980
Euro1981
granny1981
strip1982
zero1982
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 7 Apr. 5/1 New issues of Turkish Tobacco and Priority bonds, of Spanish, and even of Russian bonds.
1926 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 23 Jan. C11/1 Buying went on also in the priority bonds.
1984 Bond Buyer (Nexis) 21 May 18 Priority bonds have first claim on the authority's net revenues.
2004 Banking & Finance Rept. (Nexis) 21 Apr. Fitch assigned a long-term rating of BB+ for priority bonds maturing in more than one year.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.a1425