Word Confusion: Premier versus Premiere

Posted October 9, 2017 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
18 Dec 2022

While premier and premiere are all about the first of anything, premier is strictly about the time, occurrence, or rank. Premiere is about the first time someone or something performs. Or is the leading lady of a theatrical production.

And this was my own word confusion. I find myself dithering between adding that e on the end or not!

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Premier Premiere

Black-and-white photograph of John Macdonald

John Sandfield Macdonald by William James Topley is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1867, John Sandfield Macdonald became the first premier of the newly created province of Ontario.


Teresa Palmer standing in front of a banner for film The Hunger Games

Teresa Palmer by Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr.

Teresa Palmer poses at the start of the premiere for The Hunger Games.

Part of Grammar:
Adjective 1; Noun 2

Plural for the noun: premiers

Noun;
Verb, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: premieres
Gerund: premiering

Third person present verb: premieres
Past tense or past participle: premiered
Present participle: premiering

Adjective:
[Attrib. & Prenominal] First in importance, order, rank, or position 1

  • Leading
  • Chief

First in time, occurrence

  • Earliest
  • Oldest
  • First in

Noun:
A prime minister or other head of government 2

  • [In Australia and Canada] The chief minister of a government of a state or province
  • First minister
  • Prime minister

A chief officer

[Australia; plural use only] The winners of a premiership

Adjective:
First

  • Initial
  • Principal

Noun:
[Of a musical, play, opera, theatrical work, or film] Have its first public performance

The leading lady in a theatre company

Verb, intransitive:
To have the first public showing

To perform publicly for the first time, as in a particular role, entertainment medium, etc.

Verb, transitive:
Give the first performance of

Examples:
Adjective:
As far as I’m concerned, Jethro Tull is the premier rock ‘n roll flautist.

The New York Times is the premier national newspaper.

The premier issue of the quarterly for the college came out last month.

“Female stars of the nation’s premier improv collective read a gay friend’s Grindr messages” (Holmes).

“When most of us think of the premier retirement destination for unrepentant Nazis, our minds immediately turn to South America” (Walters).

Noun:
Wen Jiabao served two terms as premier in China.

In 2017, Mark McGowan was the premier in Western Australia.

Adjective:
It was the premiere showing for Iron Man.

Nicole Kidman’s gown was the premiere attraction of the evening.

Noun:
Are you going to the premiere tonight?

“Most recently, Karl Lagerfeld hosted a grand fête celebrating the premiere of his film Reincarnation” (Jones).

Edward Small had planned to make a film version of the play The Mousetrap with Maria Schell as the premiere, but it came to naught.

Verb, intransitive:
The show premiered in New York this week.

The seventh season for Game of Thrones premiered in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

It will premiere at the Arcadia Theater.

When does he premiere as Hamlet?

Verb, transitive:
His first stage play was premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Our little Maggie is premiering in her first musical solo Thursday night.

Derivatives:
Noun: premiership
History of the Word:
  1. Mid-15th century meaning first in time.

    By the late 15th century, it meant first in rank from the Middle French premier meaning first, chief, from the Latin primarius meaning principal.

  2. 1711, in the political sense, it was a shortening of premier minister (1680s).

In US usage, premier formerly was applied occasionally to the Secretary of State (1855–c.1900).

Late 19th century from the French première, the feminine of premier meaning first.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Premier versus Premiere

Apple Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com: premier, premiere

Holmes, Jack. The Ladies of Second City Read Grindr Hookup Messages. The Daily Beast Video. 10 Dec 2014. The Daily Beast. Last updated 21 Apr 2017. Web. n.d. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-ladies-of-second-city-read-grindr-hookup-messages?source=dictionary>.

Jones, Justin. “Inside The World’s 10 Oldest Restaurants.” The Daily Beast.
19 Dec 2014. Web. n.d. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-worlds-10-oldest-restaurants?source=dictionary>.

Walters, Guy. “Hitler’s Henchmen in Arabia”, 6 Dec 2014. Web. n.d. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/hitlers-henchmen-in-arabia?source=dictionary>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth Nations, 1960, Windsor Castle, courtesy of the Diefenbaker Centre and the British Government. The image is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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