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Webster 1913 Edition

Precept

Pre′cept

,
Noun.
[L.
praeceptum
, from
praecipere
to take beforehand, to instruct, teach;
prae
before +
capere
to take: cf. F.
précepte
. See
Pre-
, and
Capacious
.]
1.
Any commandment, instruction, or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; esp., a command respecting moral conduct; an injunction; a rule.
For
precept
must be upon
precept
.
Isa. xxviii. 10.
No arts are without their
precepts
.
Dryden.
2.
(Law)
A command in writing; a species of writ or process.
Burrill.
Syn. – Commandment; injunction; mandate; law; rule; direction; principle; maxim. See
Doctrine
.

Pre′cept

,
Verb.
T.
To teach by precepts.
[Obs.]
Bacon.

Webster 1828 Edition

Precept

PRE'CEPT

,
Noun.
[L. proeceptum, from proecipio, to command; proe, before, and capio, to take.]
1.
In a general sense, any commandment or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; but applied particularly to commands respecting moral conduct. The ten commandments are so many precepts for the regulation of our moral conduct.
No arts are without their precepts.
2.
In law, a command or mandate in writing.

Definition 2024

precept

precept

English

Alternative forms

Noun

precept ‎(plural precepts)

  1. A rule or principle, especially one governing personal conduct.
    • 2006: Theodore Dalrymple, The Gift of Language
      • I need hardly point out that Pinker doesn't really believe anything of what he writes, at least if example is stronger evidence of belief than precept.
    • 1891:
      (Can we date this quote?), Hale, Susan, Mexico (The Story of the Nations), volume 27, London: T. Fisher Unwin, page 80:
      • He found a people in the extreme of barbarism living in caves, feeding upon the bloody flesh of animals they killed in hunting; he taught them many things, so that by his example, and for generations after he left them by his precepts, they advanced to high civilization.
  2. (law) A written command, especially a demand for payment.

Translations

Verb

precept ‎(third-person singular simple present precepts, present participle precepting, simple past and past participle precepted)

  1. (obsolete) To teach by precepts.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

Anagrams

Old Irish

Etymology

Borrowing from Late Latin praeceptum, form of praecipiō ‎(“to teach”), from prae ‎(“pre-”) + capiō ‎(“take”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpʲrʲeɡʲept/

Noun

precept f ‎(genitive precepte)

  1. verbal noun of pridchaid
    • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 21c19
      Is oc precept soscéli at·tó.‎
      I am preaching the gospel.

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
precept phrecept precept
pronounced with /b(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Etymology

Borrowing from Late Latin praeceptum, form of praecipiō ‎(“to teach”), from Latin prae ‎(“pre-”) + capiō ‎(“take”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpɹiːsɛpt/

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