principial

Probably a learned borrowing from Latin prī̆ncipiālis.^[1] By surface analysis, principia +‎ -al.

principial (comparative more principial, superlative most principial)

1. Elementary; fundamental.
   • 1620, Francis Bacon, Novum Organum:

     On account of heat being kindled by the attrition of bodies, reject a principial nature. By principial nature I mean that which exists in the nature of things positively, and not as the effect of any antecedent nature.

   • 2003, Reiner Schürmann, Broken Hegemonies, page 274:

     My only aim will be to trace the dislocating work of the two conditions that ensue, namely, the principial condition over which the foundation presides and the ground as the originary condition.

   • 2011, David Gibson, Reading the Decree:

     The latter, a principial christocentrism, may include the monergistic view of salvation, but it will also assume that Christ is the principium cognoscendi theologiae or, in Kickel's phrase the Erkenntnissgrund of theology.

From principiu +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /prin.t͡ʃi.piˈal/

principial m or n (feminine singular principială, masculine plural principiali, feminine and neuter plural principiale)

1. principled

• “principial”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025