10 uses
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Definition
most important; or person who is most important
The exact meaning of principal can depend upon its context. For example:
- "the principal idea" or "the principal performer" — the most important
- "the principal of the school" — the person in charge
- "a principal of a company" — an owner or person with controlling authority
- "the principal in a transaction" (as contrasted to the agent) — the person on whose behalf an agent acts
- Longinus has given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer principally excelled.Preface (26% in)
- Nor is this judicious and astonishing diversity to be found only in the principal quality which constitutes the main of each character, but even in the under parts of it, to which he takes care to give a tincture of that principal one.Preface (21% in)
- Nor is this judicious and astonishing diversity to be found only in the principal quality which constitutes the main of each character, but even in the under parts of it, to which he takes care to give a tincture of that principal one.Preface (21% in)
- We see the motion of Hector's plumes in the epithet Korythaiolos, the landscape of Mount Neritus in that of Einosiphyllos, and so of others, which particular images could not have been insisted upon so long as to express them in a description (though but of a single line) without diverting the reader too much from the principal action or figure.Preface (34% in)
- Thus on whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his invention.Preface (40% in)
- We ought to have a certain knowledge of the principal character and distinguishing excellence of each: it is in that we are to consider him, and in proportion to his degree in that we are to admire him.Preface (41% in)
- His similes are like pictures, where the principal figure has not only its proportion given agreeable to the original, but is also set off with occasional ornaments and prospects.Preface (48% in)
- It is not to be doubted, that the fire of the poem is what a translator should principally regard, as it is most likely to expire in his managing: however, it is his safest way to be content with preserving this to his utmost in the whole, without endeavouring to be more than he finds his author is, in any particular place.Preface (67% in)
- The general, at length opening his eyes to the fault which he had committed, deputes the principal officers of his army to the incensed hero, with commission to make compensation for the injury, and to tender magnificent presents.Footnotes (12% in)
- The many families or gentes, called Asklepiads, who devoted themselves to the study and practice of medicine, and who principally dwelt near the temples of Asklepius, whither sick and suffering men came to obtain relief—all recognized the god not merely as the object of their common worship, but also as their actual progenitor.Footnotes (45% in)
There are no more uses of "principal" in The Iliad by Homer - (translated by: Pope).
Typical Usage
(best examples)