prematureadj.adv.n.
/ˈprɛmətʃə/, /ˈprɛmətʃʊə/, /ˈprɛmətjʊə/, /ˈprɛmətʃɔː/, /ˈprɛmətjɔː/, /ˌprɛməˈtʃɔː/, /ˌprɛməˈtjɔː/, U.S. /ˌpriməˈtʃər/, /ˌpriməˈtʃʊ(ə)r/ A. adj.† 1. Ripe, mature, esp. before the proper season. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by age or cycles > [adjective] > ripe or ripened > ripening or becoming ripe > ripening or flowering early
hasty1338
before-ripea1382
precoquea1398
premature?1440
rathe1572
hasting1578
rathe-ripe1578
precocious1650
precoce1658
rareripe1678
hastive1724
force-ripe1830
tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) iv. 632 (MED) And premature [L. maturam] yf that the list enlonge Their grossis, whenne as grete as benys be, So tacke hem of.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia Premature, ripe before other, or ripe before due time and season.
2.
a. Occurring, existing, or done before the usual, proper, or appointed time; too early; overhasty.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > a suitable time or opportunity > untimeliness > [adjective] > early or premature
rathe1340
soona1400
premature?1530
fore-ripeda1533
untimeousc1540
immature1548
overtimely1548
prematurate1570
oversoona1586
over-early1605
premiseda1616
prematured1692
unearthly1865
previous1869
?1530 in R. Fiddes Life Wolsey (1724) Collect. 213 His so primature deathe was imputed only to nimio Coitu.
a1627 J. Hayward Life & Raigne Edward Sixt (1630) To Rdr. As his birth was violent, and his reigne troublesome, so was his death præmature.
1654 H. Hammond Of Fund. in Notion xiii. 126 'Tis hard to imagine what..should be able to perswade him to repent, till he hath deposited that premature perswasion of his being in Christ.
1710 E. Curll Case Dr. Sacheverell 6 It is a Premature, Indeliberate, and Irrational Opinion, hastily fixed in the Mind.
1758 S. Johnson Idler 27 May 57 The account of the engagement..was premature.
1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. v. 191 Too rapid growth and premature decay seem invariably connected.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People vii. §7. 426 Indications that he already felt the advance of premature age.
1927 A. Conan Doyle Case-bk. Sherlock Holmes 229 I beg you to take every possible precaution that there be no premature revelation of the process.
1954 J. Cheever in New Yorker 20 Nov. 38/3 She is a pretty, intelligent woman, and the white in her hair is premature.
2005 West Australian (Nexis) 24 Nov. 16 The public wanted..a prison system that would protect it by preventing the escape or premature release of hardened prisoners.
b. Of a woman's labour or an infant's birth: occurring before full term; (of an infant) born before full term, esp. (in recent use) before 37 weeks of gestation, or with a weight of less than 2.5 kg. Cf. preterm adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > confinement > [adjective] > giving birth > complications of childbirth or pregnancy
abortivea1450
still-born1607
footling1699
premature1754
abortifacient1858
underborn1884
postmature1895
post-term1928
preterm1928
born alive1957
prem1961
1754 W. Smellie Treat. Midwifery II. xiii. 213 (heading) On the situation of the child during pregnancy, the signs of conception and premature labour.
1775 A. Hamilton Elements Pract. Midwifery 122 When a woman miscarries in early Gestation, this they consider as an Abortion; but, if in the later Months, that they term a Premature Birth.
1800 Med. Facts & Observ. 8 190 She has since borne six children by premature labour.
1809 Q. Rev. 1 340 She receives the necessary attendance in her premature accouchement.
1878 Obstetr. Jrnl. 6 163 (heading) Case illustrating the viability of extremely small premature children.
1924 C. Mackenzie Heavenly Ladder xviii. 244 The shock brought on a premature travail, and she was delivered of a boy in the Vicarage.
1969 D. Baird Combined Textbk. Obstetr. & Gynæcol. (ed. 8) xxxiii. 544 By international agreement a ‘premature’ infant has been defined as one weighing 2,500 g. (5½ lb.) or less at birth.
1996 Independent 27 Aug. ii. 6/2 Julia Suslak's was a textbook pregnancy until she went into premature labour at 29 weeks.
B. adv.
Chiefly poetic. Prematurely.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > a suitable time or opportunity > untimeliness > [adverb] > early, too early, or prematurely
ratheOE
oversoona1400
overtimelya1400
untimeously1513
before his (also her, etc.) time1545
abortively1552
immaturely1572
untimelya1586
forwardlya1641
prematurely1641
premature1754
ahead of oneself1854
over-early1856
beforetimes1885
1754 T. Blacklock Philanthes in Poems 116 Like tender fruit, they perish premature.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. i. 4 Achilles..who..sent many a soul Illustrious into Ades premature.
1872 A. Austin Interludes 77 Sooner the shade of the cypress Stretch premature over your tomb.
1965 T. Olsen in Harper's Mag. Oct. 153/2 The spring is false; the time is drought or blight or infestation; the frost comes premature.
C. n.
1. Military (originally colloquial). An explosive device which detonates prematurely. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1882 Times 17 Aug. 4/1 There were, so far as our information goes, no ‘prematures’, but the ‘blinds’ were scandalously frequent... Time fuses are delicate instruments.
1915 J. McCrae Let. 17 May in In Flanders Fields (1919) 74 Our guns—those behind us, from which we had to dodge occasional prematures—have a peculiar bang sound added to the sharp crack of discharge.
1959 R. H. Stevens & D. Woodward tr. K. Doenitz Mem. Ten Years & Twenty Days viii. 101 Very soon Oehrn reported that of five magnetic torpedoes which he fired two had been prematures and two, apparently, had not exploded at all.
2004 J. T. McDaniel Bacalao ix. 145 Three more torpedoes had blown up before they got to the target. Collins would have been tearing his hair out by the roots over the prematures if he still had any.
2. Obstetrics. A premature infant.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > baby or infant > [noun] > premature baby
premature1900
preemie1927
prem1951
preterm1975
the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > confinement > [noun] > childbirth or delivery > complications of childbirth or pregnancy > premature child
seven-months1724
premature1900
preemie1927
prem1951
1900 W. A. N. Dorland Amer. Illustr. Med. Dict. 534/1 Premature... 2. An infant born before its proper time, but viable.
1923 J. H. Hess Premature & Congenitally Diseased Infants xiv. 313 In the premature especially the skin is delicate, lacking the horny layer.
1960 A. K. Geddes Premature Babies iii. 18 An irregular respiratory rhythm is normal for prematures.
1999 Child Development 70 1/2 By term age, prematures are alert more and awake more.
Compounds
premature ageing n. abnormally early appearance of signs associated with old age (in one or more parts of the body).
ΚΠ
1864 Lancet 22 Oct. 473/1 The habit of smoking is most deleterious in youth, producing impairment of growth, deficient development, and premature aging.
1941 Sci. Monthly May 421/1 The prevention of premature aging.
1996 Guardian 18 June ii. 16/5 UVB is the most dangerous cancer risk, but there is increasing concern about UVA—which can also cause wrinkling and premature ageing.
premature ejaculation n. expulsion of semen before penetration or very soon after it; (also) a disorder of male sexual function in which the stages of orgasm and ejaculation are reached before the desired time; cf. ejaculatio praecox n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun] > ejaculation > premature
premature ejaculation1866
ejaculatio praecox1892
1866 A. Lippe Text Bk. Materia Medica 96 Imperfect erections, and premature ejaculation of the semen.
1910 A. Abrams Diagnostic Therapeutics iii. 230 Occasionally onanism is followed by various grades of impotency (usually psychic) and premature ejaculation.
1992 Playboy Dec. 46/1 It's an old joke that to avoid premature ejaculation, all a guy has to do is think of baseball.
premature pubarche n. the early appearance of pubic hair without other signs of sexual precocity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > [noun] > premature pubic hair
premature pubarche1950
1950 L. Wilkins Diagn. & Treatm. Endocrine Disorders in Childh. & Adolescence ix. 146/2 We would suggest for this condition the term ‘premature pubarche’ which does not attempt to define its etiology.
1974 N. D. Barnes et al. in M. M. Grumbach et al. Control of Onset of Puberty viii. 223 Premature pubarche or adrenarche, the isolated growth of sexual hair, is another form of precocious sexual development that may be neurogenically determined.
2003 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 997 49 Adolescents with a history of premature pubarche..are at risk for PCOS [= polycystic ovary syndrome].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
prematurev.
/ˈprɛmətʃə/, /ˈprɛmətʃʊə/, /ˈprɛmətjʊə/, /ˈprɛmətʃɔː/, /ˈprɛmətjɔː/, /ˌprɛməˈtʃɔː/, /ˌprɛməˈtjɔː/, U.S. /ˌpriməˈtʃər/, /ˌpriməˈtʃʊ(ə)r/ Military.
intransitive. Of a shell or other projectile: to explode before the proper time; (of a gun) to fire such a projectile. Cf. premature n. 1.figurative in quot. 1914.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > management of artillery > operate artillery [verb (intransitive)] > explode prematurely
premature1914
1914 J. Fisher Let. 7 June in Jrnl. Mod. Hist. (1995) 67 622 It is a great pity that this submarine scare has prematured before a bit more Austrian and Italian dreadnoughts were laid down.
1916 ‘B. Cable’ Doing their Bit v. 83 A shrapnel prematuring at the muzzle.
1918 G. Frankau Judgement of Valhalla 49 Behind, a cratered slope, with batteries Crashing and flashing, violet in the dusk, And prematuring every now and then.
1950 S. E. Morrison Hist. U.S. Naval Operations VI. i. vi. 82 The attack was delivered, but one torpedo prematured and deflected the other.
1986 T. Clancy Red Storm Rising (1988) xxxvi. 633 We've fired three torpedoes at this target now for zero hits. He got one off at us, but it prematured in our wake.
Derivatives
premaˈturing adj. rare
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > management of artillery > [adjective] > exploding prematurely
prematuring1916
1916 ‘B. Cable’ Doing their Bit v. 83 The bullets that should have gone lifting high and clear inside the case smashing, perhaps, into the open rear of a gun-emplacement or a battery a few hundred yards in front of the prematuring gun.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.adv.n.?1440
v.1914