primicerius

prīmus (“first”) +‎ cēra (“wax”) +‎ -ius, i.e. one whose name is written first on a wax tablet

prīmicērius m (genitive prīmicēriī); second declension

1. (post-Classical) head of an administrative or military department, chief
   • 449, Gesta Synodi Ephesenae [Acts of the Second Council of Ephesus], published 1932, section 66:

     Idem Iohannes presbyter et primicerius notariorum reliqua gestorum legit.

     The same John, presbyter and chief notary, read the remainder of the acts.

Second-declension noun.

• secundicērius

• Catalan: primicer
• French: primicier, primicère
• Italian: primicerio
• Portuguese: primicério
• → Byzantine Greek: πριμικήριος (primikḗrios)
• → Maltese: perċimes

• “primicerius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• primicerius in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• primicerius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “primicerius”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin