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Origin and history of prince

prince(n.)

c. 1200, "governor, overseer, magistrate; leader; great man, chief; preeminent representative of a group or class" (mid-12c. as a surname), from Old French prince "prince, noble lord" (12c.), from Latin princeps (genitive principis) "first person, chief leader; ruler, sovereign," noun use of adjective meaning "that takes first," from primus "first" (see prime (adj.)) + root of capere "to take" (from PIE root *kap- "to grasp").

German cognate Fürst, from Old High German furist "first," is apparently an imitation of the Latin formation.

As "heir apparent to a throne," mid-14c. (Prince of Wales). The meaning "king's son, scion of a royal family" is by mid-15c. From c. 1600 as a courtesy title given to non-regnant members of royal families, often confined to the younger sons of sovereigns. Prince Regent was the title of George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) during the mental incapacity of George III (1811-1820).

By mid-14c. prince was used as the type of a handsome, worthy, wealthy, or proud man. The modern colloquial meaning "admirable or generous person" is from 1911, American English.

also from c. 1200

Entries linking to prince

prime(adj.)

late 14c., "first, original, first in order of time," from Old French prime and directly from Latin primus "first, the first, first part," figuratively "chief, principal; excellent, distinguished, noble" (source also of Italian and Spanish primo), from Proto-Italic *prismos, superlative of PIE *preis- "before," from root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before, first, chief."

The meaning "of fine quality, of the first excellence" is from c. 1400. The meaning "first in rank, degree, or importance" is from 1610s in English. Arithmetical sense (as in prime number, one indivisible without a remainder except by 1) is from 1560s; prime meridian "the meridian of the earth from which longitude is measured, that of Greenwich, England," is from 1878. Prime time originally (c. 1500) meant "spring time;" the broadcasting sense of "peak tuning-in period" is attested by 1961.

crown-prince(n.)

"eldest son or other heir-apparent of a monarch," 1791, a translation of German kronprinz; see crown (n.) + prince. 

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princess
late 14c., "woman of royal or noble birth; daughter or wife of a ruler or prince; female ruler," a native formation; in some later instances from Old French princesse, fem. of prince (see prince). Compare Medieval Latin principissa, Italian principessa. As a colloquial form of ad
principality
c. 1300, principalite, "position of a prince," from Old French principalite "principal matter; power, sovereignty" (12c.,...Mid-14c. as "government by a prince." Meaning "region or state ruled by a prince or monarch" is attested from late 14c....
consort
A prince consort (1837) is a prince who is the husband of a queen but himself has no royal authority (the most notable being...Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria; the initial proposal in Parliament in 1840 was to call...Philip of Spain, Mary's husband, bore the title of king, Anne's husband was simply Prince George of Denmark....of Prince Consort....
rajah
also raja, "king or prince in India," ruling either independently or as a feudatory, 1550s, from Hindi, from Sanskrit rajan...Related: Rajput, "member of the ruling caste in northern India" (1590s), from Sanskrit rajaputrah "prince," literally "king's...
duke
early 12c., "a sovereign prince," from Old French duc (12c.) and directly from Latin dux (genitive ducis) "leader, commander...Also used to translate various European titles (such as Russian knyaz), usually of nobles ranking below a prince, but it...
regency
Notable instances were: France 1715-1723 (under Philip, Duke of Orleans), Britain 1811-1820 (under George, Prince of Wales..., Prince Regent), "in each case with suggestion of debauchery" [Weekley]....
potentate
c. 1400, potentat, "a ruler, lord, prince, monarch; person who possesses independent power or sway," from Old French potentat...
blue-blood
1809 in reference to the blood that flows in the veins of the old and aristocratic families of Spain, translating Spanish sangre azul, claimed by certain families of Castile that held themselves uncontaminated by Moorish or Jewish admixture; the term probably is from the notion o
patrician
early 15c., patricion, "member of the ancient Roman noble order," reputed descendants of the original citizens, from Old French patricien, from Latin patricius "of the rank of the nobles, of the senators; of fatherly dignity," from patres conscripti "Roman senators," from plural
dauphin
title of the eldest son of the king of France (in use from 1349-1830), early 15c., from Old French dauphin, literally "dolphin" (see dolphin). Originally it was the title attached to "the Dauphin of Viennois," whose province (in the French Alps north of Provence) came to be known

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