Etymology

principal

prin·ci·pal
P3R1I1N1C3I1P3A1L1

Today it means: Primary; most important; first level in importance. Full definition →

Middle English principal ← Old French principal ← Latin prīncipālis
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromprīncipālis
  2. Old French · derived fromprincipal
  3. Middle English · inherited fromprincipal
  4. English todayprincipal

From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.

Words from the same roots

Latinprīncipālis all →

principality

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.