Link Centre Dictionary

primitive

pri·mi·tive

UK/ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv/ US/ˈprɪmɪtɪv/ fairly common
adjective (4) noun (3)

adjective

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”
Synonyms
Similar
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”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies

  • “primitive societies”
Similar
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”
Similar

noun

1.

a person who belongs to early stage of civilization

Synonyms
2.

a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived

3.

a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms

  • “pick”
  • “picket”

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • modern primitive
  • primitive art
  • primitive colour
  • primitive concept
  • primitive element
  • Primitive Irish
  • primitive notion
  • primitive polynomial
  • primitive recursion

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.