meansprimarily

Meansprimarily is a neologism used in discussions of action theory, philosophy of language, and social sciences to describe a category of means that are employed chiefly for achieving a specific end. In this sense, the term flags instrumentality: the primary function of the tool, method, or procedure is to bring about a desired outcome, rather than to reveal intrinsic qualities or satisfy secondary considerations. The word is typically treated as a single lexical item, emphasizing that the means themselves are foregrounded as the main instrument.

Etymology and usage context: The term blends means with primarily, signaling that the primary purpose of the action is instrumental. It lacks a fixed, universally accepted definition and appears mainly in analytic discussions where authors seek to distinguish primary instrumental use from incidental or ancillary roles of a given mechanism. Because it is a relatively new and specialized term, its exact scope can vary by author or discipline.

Applications and examples: Meansprimarily can apply to technological tools, communicative practices, or procedural workflows. For example, a data-processing pipeline might be described as meansprimarily to produce a timely analysis, rather than to demonstrate computational elegance. In linguistic analysis, a phrase may be analyzed as meansprimarily signaling method rather than content.

Relation to related concepts: The idea intersects with instrumental rationality, means-end reasoning, and instrumentality. It complements discussions of teleology and normative assessments of actions by foregrounding the primacy of tools and methods in achieving goals.

See also: means-end theory, instrumental rationality, instrumentality, teleology.