Primary

a. [Lat. primarius, from primus, the first; Fr. primaire, It. & Sp. primario. See PRIME.]

1Sense 1. First in order of time or development; original. The church of Christ, in its primary institution, was made .... to spread and extend itself. Pearson. These I call original, or primary, qualities of body. Locke.

2Sense 2. First in order; preparatory to something higher; as, primary assemblies; primary schools.

3Sense 3. First in dignity or importance; chief; principal; as, the education of youth is a matter of primary importance.

Primary axis (Bot.), the main stalk which bears a whole cluster of flowers. — Primary colors. (a.) (Opt.) The seven simple colors into which light is resolved when transmitted through a prism, namely, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. (b.) (Paint.) The three colors blue, yellow, and red, because from them all other colors may be obtained by mixture. Fairholt. — Primary planets (Astron.), those which revolve around the sun as their center, in distinction from secondary planets, or satellites. — Primary qualities of bodies, such as are essential to, and inseparable from, the action of a body or bodies. — Primary quills (Ornith.), the largest feathers of the wing of a bird; primaries. — Primary rocks (Geol.), primitive rocks. See PRIMITIVE.

n. 1. That which stands highest in rank or importance; a chief matter or thing. 2. (Ornith.) One of the large feathers on the last joint of a bird’s wing; — used only in the plural.