primitive
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv/
rhymes: -ɪmɪtɪv
Forms: form: more primitive
form: most primitive
form: primative
Etymology: From Middle English primitif, from Old French primitif, from Latin prīmitīvus (“first or earliest of its kind”), from prīmus (“first”); see prime. Doublet of primitivo.
Senses: examples: text: primitive innocence; the primitive church
text: it is from such primitive beings that the highest organisms now extant are the marvellously developed descendants
ref: 1895, Edmund Montgomery, “To Be Alive, What is it?”, in The Monist:
glosses: Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first.
examples: text: a primitive style of dress
text: By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: The intermediate stations were of the most primitive type.
ref: 1951 August, “The Why and the Wherefore: The West Sussex Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 573:
text: It could be said that the history of religions—from the most primitive to the most highly developed—is constituted by a great number of hierophanies, by manifestations of sacred realities.
ref: 1959, Mircea Eliade, “Introduction”, in Willard R. Trask, transl., The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harvest Book; HB 144), New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →ISBN, page 11:
synonyms: backwards
glosses: Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity.
examples: text: I used primitive hearts to decorate the quilt.
synonyms: backwards
glosses: Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity.
Relating to an art style characterized by asymmetrical shapes and faded colors.
examples: text: primitive ideas
glosses: Crude, obsolete.
examples: text: a primitive verb
text: Division of words. Words are primitive or radical, and derivative or compound.
Of primitive words. Primitive or radical words are such as cannot be divided, or separated into parts which are significant; as man, hope, bless.
ref: 1831, Noah Webster, Rudiments of English Grammar; Being an Abridgment of the Improved Grammar of the English Language, New-Haven, page 6:
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
synonyms: radical
antonyms: derivative
derived
glosses: Original; primary; radical; not derived.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.
topics: mathematics
sciences
synonyms: imprimitive
glosses: Not derived from another of the same type
examples: text: We infer that other groups of related languages, such as the Germanic (or the Slavic or the Celtic), which show a similar resemblance, have arisen in the same way; it is only an accident of history that for these groups we have no written records of the earlier state of the language, as it was spoken before the differentiation set in. To these unrecorded languages we give names like Primitive Germanic (Primitive Slavic, Primitive Celtic, and so on).
ref: 1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, Henry Holt, page 13:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
synonyms: proto-
glosses: most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of
Derived terms: AADAOPA
multiprimitive
neoprimitive
neoprimitivist
nonprimitive
preprimitive
primitive art
primitive colour
primitive concept
primitive element
Primitive Irish
primitively
primitiveness
primitive notion
primitive polynomial
primitive recursion
primitive recursive
primitive reflex
primitive root
primitive streak
primitive type
primitive wrapper class
primitivism
primitivist
primitivistic
primitivity
primitivize
quasiprimitive
semiprimitive
ultraprimitive
unprimitive