primogenitive

comparative more primogenitive · superlative most primogenitive

1. Firstborn.

   The primogenitive male line is said here to carry with it possession of the state—the patrimony of the primogenitive male ancestors.

   2017, Simon Pearse Brodbeck, The Mahabharata Patriline

   1 more example

   This left Henry de Bourbon, the Huguenot King of Navarre, as the primogenitive heir to the French throne, an eventuality the Catholic League in France was unwilling to accept.

   2014, Roland Mushat Frye, The Renaissance Hamlet, page 68

2. Based on or pertaining to primogeniture.

   The system of primogenitive inheritance utterly destroys this salutary principle ; and for the following reasons:

   1834 May, C.C.P., “The Evils of Primogenitive Inheritance”, in The Monthly Repository, volume 8, page 349

   1 more example

   If a society must be absolutely primogenitive before the word patrilineal is applied to it, then no society has ever been patrilineal.

   1985, Albion - Volume 17, page 394

1. obsoleteuncountableprimogeniture

   the primogenitive and due of birth

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]