primality
(praɪˈmælɪtɪ)
[In sense 1, f. primal + -ity: cf. primalty; in sense 2, f. prime a. + -al + -ity.]
1. The quality or condition of being primal; with pl. that which is primal. rare.
| 1670 Baxter Cure Ch. Div. 234 As Campenella saith, The abuse of the Potestative Primality is Tyranny, the abuse of the Intellective Primality is Heresie, and the abuse of the Volitive Primality is Hypocrisie. 1846 T. W. Jenkyn Baxter's Wks. Pref. Ess. 51 The perspicacity necessary for detecting the trinal ‘primalities’ as they develope themselves in the phenomena of the Universe. |
2. Math. The property of being a prime number.
| 1919 L. E. Dickson Hist. Theory Numbers I. xvii. 397 A test for the primality of 2n {pm} 1. 1958 Computer Jrnl. I. 101/1 It proved possible to test for primality a series of numbers of the form 2k - 1. 1975 Nature 16 Oct. 544/1 They added that A. Ferrier, using a desk machine, had just demonstrated the primality of another large number. |