Premiere comes from French première, feminine of premier ('first'), from Latin primarius ('of the first rank'), from primus ('first'). The historical chain includes French première and Latin primus. The quoted older senses, "first" and "of the first rank", supply the semantic anchors for premiere. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word premiere carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "the first public performance or showing of a work". Related English forms include premier, primary, and prime. The result is a noun and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.