Other forms: preliminaries
Preliminary means coming first, before the real work. Preliminary findings, a preliminary hearing, preliminary results.
It is a careful word: preliminary findings are published so that people know what is being looked at and are explicitly not conclusions. In law, a preliminary hearing decides what happens at the real one. In sport, preliminary rounds come before the main competition. As a noun, the preliminaries are the introductory formalities: skip the preliminaries. Note preliminarily, which almost nobody says.
1adjectivepreliminaryComing first, before the main work.
“The preliminary findings were published within about a month.”
2nounintroductoryAn introductory formality.
“After the usual preliminaries about the weather, he told us the bad news.”
preliminary is something coming first.
The Latin is prae, before, and limen, the step under a door. The preliminary happens before you have even got through the door.
hooks ontodoor
Latin prae, before, plus limen, a threshold — the same limen as in eliminate and subliminal. Something preliminary happens before you cross the threshold, which is exactly what a preliminary hearing does.
New Latin
praelīmināris
English, today
preliminary
Built from
New Latin praelīmināris, formed from prae- (“before”) + līmen (“threshold”) + -āris; compare Latin līmināris (“of or belonging to a threshold”). Compare French préliminaire.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Academic English