premier

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French premier (adjective), from Latin prīmārius. Doublet of primary.

adj

1. Foremost; first or highest in quality or degree.
   2004, Philip Moore, Scouting an Anthropology of Sport, Anthropologica, Volume 46, Number 1, Canadian Anthropology Society, page 40, This failure, for a team associated with one of the premier Australian Rules Football teams with the longest of traditions, is truly enormous.
   2011, Kate Askew, Dot. Bomb Australia, Read How You Want, page 70, If they′d followed the advice they had received more carefully, they would have paired up with John Fairfax Holdings, later Fairfax Media, Australia′s premier independent media company.
   South Africa′s golfing greats battle it out on one of the country′s premier courses. 2011, Pippa de Bruyn, Keith Bain, Frommer′s South Africa, 7th edition, unnumbered page
2. (heraldry) Most ancient; first to hold a specified status.
   PREMIER, a. This French word, which signifies first, is used by English Heralds to signify the most ancient Peer of any Degree by Creation; as Premier Baron, &c.] [1777, Antoine Pyron du Marte, Mr. Porny, The Elements of Heraldry
   […]dau. of Lord Forbes, Premier Baron of Scotland (the Cumine family were of very ancient date[…]) 1882, Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, page 1390
   "THE PREMIER DUKES OF FRANCE. " It will be seen from the autograph appended … He was the first to arrive, but it was to his coachman that he owed it that he became the premier Duke of France. 1890, William Thomas Stead, The Review of Reviews, page 327

noun

1. (politics, UK, Westminster system) The head of government in parliament and leader of the cabinet.
   1. (politics, UK parliament) The prime minister.
      1871 July 29, “Our Tyrant”, The Spectator, Volume 303, Issues 9308-9315, page 910, Mr. Gladstone had literally no option. Not to coerce the Lords was to coerce the Commons to continue purchase in spite of their repeated votes for its abolition, and this the Premier had as little the power as the will to do.
   2. (politics, Australia, Canada, South Africa) The leader of a state or provincial government and cabinet.
      More surprising than the company′s activities and interests were those of the premier of Ontario, Mitchell Hepburn. 1974, Irving M. Abella, On Strike; Six Key Labour Struggles in Canada, 1919-1949, page 96
      The major concern of most of the premiers who attended the 1887 conference was, as Macdonald well understood, to put pressure upoon Ottawa to amend the B.N.A. Act to increase the subsidies paid to the provinces by tying them to current population levels rather than those of 1860. 1986, R. Kenneth Carty, National Politics and Community in Canada, page 116
      John Forrest had dominated the fledgling state of Western Australia, serving as premier for the previous decade. 2007, Patrick Moray Weller, Cabinet Government in Australia, 1901-2006: Practice, Principles, Performance, page 1
      In 1890 it was South Australian Premier Charles Cameron Kingston who first proposed a system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration to deal with industrial unrest. 2009, Andrew Stewart, edited by John Spoehr, Chapter 16: Industrial Relations: State of South Australia: From Crisis to Prosperity?, page 302
      In 2009 Kristina Keneally became Labor premier in NSW in similar circumstances to her predecessors in Western Australia and Victoria - a Labor government that was in deep trouble because of mismanagement and corruption scandals. 2011, Jennifer Curtin, Marian Sawer, “4: Oceania”, in Gretchen Bauer, Manon Tremblay, editors, Women in Executive Power: A Global Overview, page 56
2. (politics, non-Westminster) The government leader in a legislative congress or leader of a government-level administrative body; the head of government.
   1983, Guo Zhou, China & the World, Volume 4, Beijing Review, page 13, This shows that our policy of strengthening friendly ties with Africa as developed by Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai is a correct one and that it has won popular support in Africa.
   Actual decision-making power in China resides in the state′s executive organs and in the CCP. At the national level the top government executive organ is the State Council, which is led by the premier. 1998, The New Encyclopædia Britannica, volume 16, page 61
   So, in the case of Russia and some other states, the head of state is the president (who is elected) and who then can name the premier and the cabinet ministers. The intent of this system is for the president to be popularly elected and to exercise political leadership, while the premier runs the everyday operations of government and leads the legislative power. 2008, Steffen W. Schmidt, Mack C. Shelley, Barbara A. Bardes, American Government & Politics Today, page 470
3. (nautical, slang) The first lieutenant or other second-in-command officer of a ship.
4. (Australia, sporting) The champion team of a particular season (especially as used in Australian rules football).

verb

1. To perform, display or exhibit for the first time.
   The composer invited all his friends when they premiered the movie he orchestrated, we got to see it before anyone but the crew.
   Beethoven at first promised Schuppanzigh the right to premier Opus 127, but Linke, cellist in Schuppanzigh′s Quartet, had also received Beethoven′s permission to premier the work at a special benefit concert for himself. 1998, John Herschel Baron, Intimate Music: A History of the Idea of Chamber Music, page 231
   So what I want to do is try to premier the new piece with the other piece, and have just a big splash in the city. 2000, W. Royal Stokes, Living the Jazz Life: Conversations With Forty Musicians About Their Careers in Jazz, page 97
   To premier the record and to show that they were still able to perform, the Stones made a surprise appearance at the New Musical Express Poll Winners Concert on May 12 in Wembley Stadium. 2010, Murry R. Nelson, The Rolling Stones: A Musical Biography, page 56
2. To govern in the role of premier.