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The Collaborative International Dictionary
premiss

Premise \Prem"ise\, n.; pl. Premises. [Written also, less properly, premiss.] [F. pr['e]misse, fr. L. praemissus, p. p. of praemittere to send before; prae before + mittere to send. See Mission.]

  1. A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.

    The premises observed, Thy will by my performance shall be served.
    --Shak.

  2. (Logic) Either of the first two propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is drawn.

    Note: ``All sinners deserve punishment: A B is a sinner.'' [1913 Webster] These propositions, which are the premises, being true or admitted, the conclusion follows, that A B deserves punishment.

    While the premises stand firm, it is impossible to shake the conclusion.
    --Dr. H. More.

  3. pl. (Law) Matters previously stated or set forth; esp., 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. pl. A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts; as, to lease premises; to trespass on another's premises.

Wiktionary
premiss

alt. (alternative spelling of premise English) n. (alternative spelling of premise English)

WordNet
premiss
  1. n. a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn; "on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not to play" [syn: premise, assumption]

  2. v. take something as preexisting and given [syn: premise]

Usage examples of "premiss".

By the adoption of the new psalmody the Puritan and Presbyterian churches, perhaps not consciously, but none the less actually, yielded the major premiss of the only argument by which liturgical worship was condemned on principle.

Why is it of no consequence to us, as Logicians, whether the Premisses are true or false?

LOGICIANS, whether our Premisses are true or false: all WE have to do is to make out whether they LEAD LOGICALLY TO THE CONCLUSION, so that, if THEY were true, IT would be true also.

Let us now write out, all together, our two Premisses and our brace of Conclusions.

And so you think, do you, that the chief use of Logic, in real life, is to deduce Conclusions from workable Premisses, and to satisfy yourself that the Conclusions, deduced by other people, are correct?

FIVE that lead to no Conclusion at all: and, even when the Premisses ARE workable, for ONE instance, where the writer draws a correct Conclusion, there are probably TEN where he draws an incorrect one.

Your Premisses offend against TWO distinct Rules, and are as fallacious as they can well be!

In marking a pair of Premisses on the larger Diagram, why is it best to mark NEGATIVE Propositions before AFFIRMATIVE ones?

Because the only question we are concerned with is whether the Conclusion FOLLOWS LOGICALLY from the Premisses, so that, if THEY were true, IT also would be true.

These are not legitimate Premisses, since the Conclusion is really part of the second Premiss, so that the first Premiss is superfluous.

Extract a Pair of Premisses out of each of the following: and deduce the Conclusion, if there is one:-- 92.

He accepted willingly, and even enthusiastically, the household conclusions on religion and politics, but they were not properly his, for he accepted them merely as conclusions and without the premisses, and it was often even a little annoying to hear him express some free opinion on religious questions in a way which showed that it was not a growth but something picked up.

Since the Signatory had been provided with false premisses, how could it matter what conclusion he came to?

I seek vainly for the decree forbidding him the right to study the problem of biological evolution in itself, and for the necessity which compels him to abide now by the premisses contained in his past work.

I boldly take up the glove against all previous wisdom, {235A} revert to the most elementary ideas of cannibal savages, challenge all the most vital premisses and axiomata that have passed current coin with philosophy for centuries, and present my theory.