primary, v.

[Barnhart]

All very nice.  You might check out The Barnhart Dictionary Companion
(Vol. 13.1; c. 2000).

Both primary, v. and primarying, v.n. are entered there.  At the time the
only electronic resource we were using was Nexis.  The e.q. (earliest
quote) then was 1980.

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com

bgzimmer at rci.rutgers.edu on Tuesday, February 08, 2005 at 5:24 PM -0500
wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
>Subject:      primary, v.
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>(None of these senses are in the OED yet, or in any of the other major
>dictionaries.  Nothing in _Hatchet Jobs and Hardball_ either.)
>
>
>* primary, v. intr. 'to hold a primary election'
>
>1916 _Fort Wayne News_ (Ind.) 22 July 1/2 Texas Democrats today are
>primarying on everything from prohibition to dog warden and from school
>bonds to United States senator.
>
>
>* primary, v. intr. 'to run in a primary election'
>
>1978 _Syracuse Herald Journal_ (NY) 22 Mar. 25/5 Robert Byrne, who
>previously announced he was considering primarying against Walsh for the
>Republican nomination, is in the race and has set up a committee to draft
>him.
>
>1995 _News-Times_ (Danbury, Conn.) 2 Nov. (online) Winkler primaried to
>win the party's endorsement over a candidate favored by Hapanowich, he
>said.
><http://web.archive.org/web/19970807001939/www.newstimes.com/archive/nov0295/lce.htm>
>
>1997 _Westbury Times_ (NY) 13 Nov. (online) One of the last races I ran
>was up in Albany, where we primaried against their Democratic machine.
><http://www.antonnews.com/westburytimes/1997/11/13/news/>
>
>
>* primary, v. trans. 'to oppose (someone) in a primary election'
>
>1982 _New York Times_ 30 May (Westchester Weekly) 8/6 Then, in 1969, when
>the Board of Legislators was formed out of the old Board of Supervisors, I
>was selected by the Republicans for the Port Chester seat, but John
>primaried me and won - by about 95 votes.
>
>1982 _Syracuse Herald Journal_ (NY) 19 Sep. A8/2 Wortley claims Lee could
>have challenged Democratic Congressman Stanley Lundine in the 34th
>District, or primaried Oneida County Executive Sherwood Boehlert, a
>Republican, in the 25th District.
>
>2005 _Montgomery Advertiser_ (Ala.) 16 Jan. (online) "Getting Daschled" is
>now a real concern for many liberal members of Congress in both political
>parties, but especially for Democrats. Yet, because their base is so
>left-wing, liberal Democrats also fear getting "primaried," that is,
>losing to another liberal in their party's primary.
><http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5edvoice116w.htm>
>
>
>And a few nonce forms...
>
>
>* white primaried, ppl. a. 'subjected to all-white primary elections (as
>in the Southern U.S. during the Jim Crow era)'
>
>1904 T. WATSON in C. V. Woodward _Tom Watson_ (1938) 370 What can the
>negro do? He has been disfranchised in nearly every southern state, except
>Georgia, and in Georgia he has been "white primaried."
>[in turn cited by: M. Perlman _Struggle for Mastery_ (2001) 285
><http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/080782593X/>]
>
>
>* outprimaried, ppl. a. 'outwitted or outmaneuvered in a primary election'
>
>1908 _Sandusky Star Journal_ (Ohio) 23 Jan. 8/3 The senator was
>out-primaried, if we may use that term.
>
>
>* unprimaried, ppl. a. 'unopposed in a primary election'
>
>1982 _Syracuse Herald Journal_ (NY) 12 Sep. E2/5 Had Lee decided to run in
>any district other than the 27th, both he and Wortley would probably have
>gone un-primaried into the November election.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer