Adjacent Words

Primitive definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PRIM'ITIVE, a. [L. primitivus; from primus, first.]
1. Pertaining to the beginning or origin; original; first; as the primitive state of Adam; primitive innocence; primitive ages; the primitive church; the primitive christian church or institutions; the primitive fathers.
2. Formal; affectedly solemn; imitating the supposed gravity of old times.
3. Original; primary; radical; not derived; as a primitive verb in grammar.
Primitive rocks, in geology, rocks supposed to be first formed, being irregularly crystallized, and aggregated without a cement,
and containing no organic remains; as granite, gneiss, etc.
PRIM'ITIVE, n. An original word; a word not derived from another.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness; "the crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man"; "primitive movies of the 1890s"; "primitive living conditions in the Appalachian mountains" [syn: crude, primitive, rude]
2: little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type; "archaic forms of life"; "primitive mammals"; "the okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe" [syn: archaic, primitive]
3: used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies; "primitive societies"
4: of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style; "primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking" [syn: primitive, naive] n
1: a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization [syn: primitive, primitive person]
2: a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived
3: a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English primitif, from Latin primitivus first formed, from primitiae first fruits, from primus first — more at prime Date: 14th century 1. a. not derived ; original, primary b. assumed as a basis; especially axiomatic <primitive concepts> 2. a. of or relating to the earliest age or period ; primeval <the primitive church> b. closely approximating an early ancestral type ; little evolved <primitive mammals> c. belonging to or characteristic of an early stage of development ; crude, rudimentary <primitive technology> d. of, relating to, or constituting the assumed parent speech of related languages <primitive Germanic> 3. a. elemental, natural <our primitive feelings of vengeance — John Mackwood> b. of, relating to, or produced by a people or culture that is nonindustrial and often nonliterate and tribal <primitive art> c. naive d. (1) self-taught, untutored <primitive craftsmen> (2) produced by a self-taught artist <a primitive painting> • primitively adverb • primitiveness noun • primitivity noun II. noun Date: 15th century 1. a. something primitive; specifically a primitive idea, term, or proposition b. a root word 2. a. (1) an artist of an early period of a culture or artistic movement (2) a later imitator or follower of such an artist b. (1) a self-taught artist (2) an artist whose work is marked by directness and naïveté c. a work of art produced by a primitive artist d. a typically rough or simple usually handmade and antique home accessory or furnishing 3. a. a member of a primitive people b. an unsophisticated person

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 early, ancient; at an early stage of civilization (primitive man). 2 undeveloped, crude, simple (primitive methods). 3 original, primary. 4 Gram. & Philol. (of words or language) radical; not derivative. 5 Math. (of a line, figure, etc.) from which another is derived, from which some construction begins, etc. 6 (of a colour) primary. 7 Geol. of the earliest period. 8 Biol. appearing in the earliest or a very early stage of growth or evolution. --n. 1 a a painter of the period before the Renaissance. b a modern imitator of such. c an untutored painter with a direct na{iuml}ve style. d a picture by such a painter. 2 a primitive word, line, etc. Phrases and idioms: the Primitive Church the Christian Church in its earliest times. Derivatives: primitively adv. primitiveness n. Etymology: ME f. OF primitif -ive or L primitivus first of its kind f. primitus in the first place f. primus first

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Primitive Prim"i*tive, a. [L. primitivus, fr. primus the first: cf. F. primitif. See Prime, a.] 1. Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church. ``Our primitive great sire.'' --Milton. 2. Of or pertaining to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity; as, a primitive style of dress. 3. Original; primary; radical; not derived; as, primitive verb in grammar. Primitive axes of co["o]rdinate (Geom.), that system of axes to which the points of a magnitude are first referred, with reference to a second set or system, to which they are afterward referred. Primitive chord (Mus.), that chord, the lowest note of which is of the same literal denomination as the fundamental base of the harmony; -- opposed to derivative. --Moore (Encyc. of Music). Primitive circle (Spherical Projection), the circle cut from the sphere to be projected, by the primitive plane. Primitive colors (Paint.), primary colors. See under Color. Primitive Fathers (Eccl.), the acknowledged Christian writers who flourished before the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. --Shipley. Primitive groove (Anat.), a depression or groove in the epiblast of the primitive streak. It is not connected with the medullary groove, which appears later and in front of it. Primitive plane (Spherical Projection), the plane upon which the projections are made, generally coinciding with some principal circle of the sphere, as the equator or a meridian. Primitive rocks (Geol.), primary rocks. See under Primary. Primitive sheath. (Anat.) See Neurilemma. Primitive streak or trace (Anat.), an opaque and thickened band where the mesoblast first appears in the vertebrate blastoderm. Syn: First; original; radical; pristine; ancient; primeval; antiquated; old-fashioned.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Primitive Prim"i*tive, n. An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Primitive means belonging to a society in which people live in a very simple way, usually without industries or a writing system. ...studies of primitive societies. ADJ: usu ADJ n 2. Primitive means belonging to a very early period in the development of an animal or plant. ...primitive whales... It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger. ADJ 3. If you describe something as primitive, you mean that it is very simple in style or very old-fashioned. It's using some rather primitive technology. ? sophisticated ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Original, primeval, primal, primordial, aboriginal, prime, primary, pristine, first. 2. Old-fashioned, quaint, simple, unsophisticated. 3. Original, primary, radical, underived. 4. Formal solemn, prim, grave.

Moby Thesaurus

Bronze Age man, Gothic, Hominidae, Iron Age man, Neanderthal, Stone Age man, ab ovo, abecedarian, aboriginal, aborigine, ancestral, ancient, animal, antediluvian, antenatal, antepatriarchal, anthropoid, ape-man, archaic, atavistic, autochthon, autochthonous, barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, basal, basic, basilar, beginning, bestial, brutal, brutish, budding, bushman, cave dweller, caveman, central, childlike, coarse, cognate, constituent, constitutive, creative, crucial, crude, derivation, derivative, doublet, earliest, earliest inhabitant, early, elemental, elementary, embryonic, endemic, eponym, erstwhile, essential, etymon, fetal, first, first comer, fore, formative, former, fossil man, foundational, fundamental, generative, genetic, germinal, gestatory, gut, homebred, homegrown, hominid, humanoid, ill-bred, immemorial, impolite, in embryo, in its infancy, in ovo, in the bud, inaugural, inceptive, inchoate, inchoative, incipient, incunabular, indigene, indigenous, infant, infantile, initial, initiative, initiatory, introductory, inventive, late, local, local yokel, man of old, material, missing link, naive, nascent, natal, native, native-born, noncivilized, of the essence, old, olden, once, onetime, original, outlandish, parturient, past, patriarchal, persistent, postnatal, preadamite, preglacial, pregnant, prehistoric, prehistoric man, prehuman, prenatal, previous, primal, primary, primate, prime, primeval, primitive settler, primogenial, primoprimitive, primordial, prior, pristine, procreative, protogenic, protohistoric, protohuman, quondam, radical, raw, recent, root, rough, rough-and-ready, rude, rudimental, rudimentary, savage, seminal, simple, simplistic, sometime, substantial, substantive, then, troglodyte, troglodytic, uncivil, uncivilized, uncombed, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, underived, underlying, undeveloped, unkempt, unlicked, unpolished, unrefined, unschooled, unsophisticated, untamed, untaught, untrained, untutored, ur, vernacular, wild