Mid 17th century; earliest use found in John Evelyn (1620–1706), diarist and writer. From a form in a Scandinavian language (compare Norwegian primstav, Swedish primstav, Danish primstav) from the Scandinavian base of Swedish prim new moon + the Scandinavian base of Swedish stav staff, stick. The Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish compounds all denote a special kind of runic calendar or almanac, consisting of a long flat stick (or occasionally other flat piece of wood) with markings engraved on its side which could be used to compute dates, festival days, and phases of the moon.