priorship
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pri·or 1
(prī′ər)adj.
1. Preceding in time or order: "[They] insist that foreign vessels seeking access obtain prior approval" (Seymour M. Hersh).
2. Preceding in importance or value: a prior consideration.
adv.
Usage Problem Before.
n.
A previous conviction or arrest: The suspect has two priors.
[Latin; see prior2.]
pri′or·ly adv.
Usage Note: Though prior usually modifies a noun that comes after it, as in prior approval, it sometimes modifies a noun for a unit of time which precedes it, as in five years prior. These constructions are marginally acceptable when the combination serves as the object of a preposition, as in A gallon of gasoline was $4.29, up 10 cents from the week prior. In our 2014 survey, 51 percent of the Panelists accepted the sentence, with many commenting that they would prefer from the prior week or from the week before. The construction is even less acceptable when it acts as an adverbial modifier: only 29 percent of the Panel approved My cell phone was stolen. I had just bought it two days prior.
pri·or 2
(prī′ər)n.
1. A monastic officer in charge of a priory or ranking next below the abbot of an abbey.
2. One of the ruling magistrates of the medieval Italian republic of Florence.
[Middle English priour, from Old English and Old French prior, both from Medieval Latin, from Latin, superior; see per in Indo-European roots.]
pri′or·ate (-ĭt), pri′or·ship′ (-shĭp′) n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
priorship
(ˈpraɪərʃɪp)n
(Ecclesiastical Terms) the office of a prior
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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