'Primitive' definitions:
Definition of 'primitive'
(from WordNet)
adjective
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]
adjective
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]
adjective
Used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies; "primitive societies"
adjective
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]
noun
A person who belongs to an early stage of civilization [syn: primitive, primitive person]
noun
A mathematical expression from which another expression is derived
noun
A word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"
Definition of 'Primitive'
From: GCIDE
- Primitive \Prim"i*tive\, n. An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Primitive'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Of or pertaining to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity; as, a primitive style of dress. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Original; primary; radical; not derived; as, primitive verb in grammar. [1913 Webster]
- Primitive axes of coordinate (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 Primitive trace (Anat.), an opaque and thickened band where the mesoblast first appears in the vertebrate blastoderm. [1913 Webster]
- Syn: First; original; radical; pristine; ancient; primeval; antiquated; old-fashioned. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'primitive'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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,
- Bronze Age man,
- 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,
- Gothic,
- gut,
- homebred,
- homegrown,
- hominid,
- Hominidae,
- 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,
- Iron Age man,
- late,
- local,
- local yokel,
- man of old,
- material,
- missing link,
- naive,
- nascent,
- natal,
- native,
- native-born,
- Neanderthal,
- 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,
- Stone Age man,
- 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