Primer

a. [O. Fr. primer, primier, premer, N. Fr. premier. See PREMIER.] First; original. [Obs. and rare.] Drayton.

n. An instrument or device for priming.

n. [Contracted from L. Lat. primæ liber, i. e., the book read at prime, the first hour.]

1Sense 1. Originally, a small prayer-book for church service, or an office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction.

2Sense 2. A small, elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner; a book of elements.

3Sense 3. (Print.) A kind of type, of which there are two species; one, called long-primer, intermediate in size between bourgeois and small pica; the other, called great-primer, larger than pica, and the largest type used in printing books. See LONG-PRIMER.

Great-primer type.