Etymology

Noun

1. A rule or principle, especially one governing personal conduct.
   • 2006: Theodore Dalrymple The Gift of Language
     • I need hardly point out that Pinker doesn't really believe anything of what he writes, at least if example is stronger evidence of belief than precept.
   • 1891:
     • He found a people in the extreme of barbarism living in caves, feeding upon the bloody flesh of animals they killed in hunting; he taught them many things, so that by his example, and for generations after he left them by his precepts, they advanced to high civilization.