primitive

[prim·i·tive]

When we talk about "primitive man", we're usually talking about cavemen and other people who existed before the advent of table manners, but if your uncle speaks grunts and chews with his mouth open, you could describe him as primitive too.

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Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church.

Noun
a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick'' is the primitive from which `picket'' is derived"

Noun
a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived

Noun
a person who belongs to early stage of civilization

Adjective S.
used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies; "primitive societies"

Adjective S.
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"

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Adjective S.
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 mo

Adjective S.
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"


a.
Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church.

a.
Of or pertaining to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity; as, a primitive style of dress.

a.
Original; primary; radical; not derived; as, primitive verb in grammar.

n.
An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative.


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'94rdinate (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 ∨ 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.

Primitive

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

Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church.

An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative.

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Usage Examples

I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.

Family trips to Yellowstone and to what are now national parks in Southern Utah, driving the primitive roads and cars of that day, were real adventures.

A man from a primitive culture who sees an automobile might guess that it was powered by the wind or by an antelope hidden under the car, but when he opens up the hood and sees the engine he immediately realizes that it was designed.

I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive.

People just don't laugh when their family is violated, and you don't shrug it off. You band together and you defend together. It's a funny, primitive instinct.

There's a connection between the advances that are made in technology and the sense of primitive fear people develop in response to it.

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.

My musical knowledge is so bad it's embarrassing. When composers discuss music with someone as primitive as myself, they have to talk about it in terms of senses and emotion, rather than keys and tempo.

Misspelled Form

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Other Usage Examples

Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.

Good music is very close to primitive language.

My recollection of a hundred lovely lakes has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful.

The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.

Anthropologists are a connecting link between poets and scientists though their field-work among primitive peoples has often made them forget the language of science.

Deep down, the US, with its space, its technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society.

The point I am making is that in the more primitive forms of society the individual is merely a unit in more developed forms of society he is an independent personality.

I was using tape loops for dancers and dance production. I had very funky primitive equipment, in fact technology wasn't very good no matter how much money you had.

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