My friend Brooke over at Yobeat was recently venting her frustrations about how no one knows the difference between “premiere” and “premier” when announcing snow film events. I know we have some amateur Angry Grammarians in our readership, so I decided to help her cause with a public service announcement about the proper use of these words:
It’s that time of year when you will likely be writing about many video premieres. While you’ve seen it both ways because no one seems to know the difference, the appropriate spelling when describing an event is “PREMIERE.” Without the final E it refers to the “first in rank.” So if you wanted to say the event was the best of the season, drop that e. Otherwise it is PREMIERE.
Shouldn’t it only be a premiere the first time? after that its just a showing right?
I guess an argument could be made that an event could be a “premiere” in a particular state or area even after it’s been shown elsewhere.
This is the switch argument all over again… at a certain point a word is just something the industry has adopted as slang, vs. any real association with the dictionary definition, or what other industries do.