premise

Meanings

1. A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
2. Any of the first propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is deduced.
3. Matters previously stated or set forth; especially, that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.
4. A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts.
5. The fundamental concept that drives the plot of a film or other story.

1. To state or assume something as a proposition to an argument.
2. To make a premise.
3. To set forth beforehand, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows.
4. To send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously.

Etymology

From Middle English premise, premisse, from Old French premisse, from Medieval Latin premissa (“set before”) (premissa propositio (“the proposition set before”)), feminine past participle of Latin praemittere (“to send or put before”), from prae- (“before”) + mittere (“to send”). Sense 4, a piece of real estate arose from the misinterpretation of the word by property owners while reading title deeds where the word was used with the legal sense.