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primitive

[prim-i-tiv]
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adjective
  1. being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world: primitive forms of life.
  2. early in the history of the world or of humankind.
  3. characteristic of early ages or of an early state of human development: primitive toolmaking.
  4. Anthropology. of or relating to a preliterate or tribal people having cultural or physical similarities with their early ancestors: no longer in technical use.
  5. unaffected or little affected by civilizing influences; uncivilized; savage: primitive passions.
  6. being in its earliest period; early: the primitive phase of the history of a town.
  7. old-fashioned: primitive ideas and habits.
  8. simple; unsophisticated: a primitive farm implement.
  9. crude; unrefined: primitive living conditions.
  10. Linguistics.
    1. of or relating to a form from which a word or other linguistic form is derived; not derivative; original or radical.
    2. of or relating to a protolanguage.
    3. of or relating to a linguistic prime.
  11. primary, as distinguished from secondary.
  12. Biology.
    1. rudimentary; primordial.
    2. noting species, varieties, etc., only slightly evolved from early antecedent types.
    3. of early formation and temporary, as a part that subsequently disappears.
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noun
  1. someone or something primitive.
  2. Fine Arts.
    1. an artist of a preliterate culture.
    2. a naive or unschooled artist.
    3. an artist belonging to the early stage in the development of a style.
    4. a work of art by a primitive artist.
  3. Mathematics.
    1. a geometric or algebraic form or expression from which another is derived.
    2. a function of which the derivative is a given function.
  4. Linguistics. the form from which a given word or other linguistic form has been derived, by either morphological or historical processes, as take in undertake.
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Origin of primitive

1350–1400; Middle English (noun and adj.) (< Middle French primitif) < Latin prīmitīvus first of its kind. See prime, -itive
Related formsprim·i·tive·ly, adverbprim·i·tive·ness, prim·i·tiv·i·ty, nounnon·prim·i·tive, adjective, nounnon·prim·i·tive·ly, adverbnon·prim·i·tive·ness, nounpre·prim·i·tive, adjectivepseu·do·prim·i·tive, adjectivesem·i·prim·i·tive, adjectiveun·prim·i·tive, adjectiveun·prim·i·tive·ly, adverbun·prim·i·tive·ness, noun

Synonyms

See more synonyms for primitive on Thesaurus.com
1, 2. prehistoric, primal, primary, primordial, original, aboriginal, antediluvian, pristine. See prime.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for primitiveness

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Primitiveness, we must remember, does not depend on antiquity of date.

  • He accounts for its 'wildness' by its primitiveness; it was blasphemous because savage.

  • He is a very likable man, and there is little about his primitiveness that is repulsive.

    The Bontoc Igorot

    Albert Ernest Jenks

  • Our object has been to defend the ‘primitiveness of fetichism.’

    Custom and Myth

    Andrew Lang

  • "One judges the primitiveness of a race by its cultural and technological institutions," Harkaway said, with a lofty smile.

    Once a Greech

    Evelyn E. Smith

British Dictionary definitions for primitiveness

primitive

adjective
  1. of or belonging to the first or beginning; original
  2. characteristic of an early state, esp in being crude or uncivilizeda primitive dwelling
  3. anthropol denoting or relating to a preliterate and nonindustrial social system
  4. biology
    1. of, relating to, or resembling an early stage in the evolutionary development of a particular group of organismsprimitive amphibians
    2. another word for primordial (def. 3)
  5. showing the characteristics of primitive painters; untrained, childlike, or naive
  6. geology pertaining to magmas that have experienced only small degrees of fractional crystallization or crystal contamination
  7. obsolete of, relating to, or denoting rocks formed in or before the Palaeozoic era
  8. obsolete denoting a word from which another word is derived, as for example hope, from which hopeless is derived
  9. Protestant theol of, relating to, or associated with a minority group that breaks away from a sect, denomination, or Church in order to return to what is regarded as the original simplicity of the Gospels
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noun
  1. a primitive person or thing
    1. an artist whose work does not conform to traditional, academic, or avant-garde standards of Western painting, such as a painter from an African or Oceanic civilization
    2. a painter of the pre-Renaissance era in European painting
    3. a painter of any era whose work appears childlike or untrainedAlso called (for senses 11a, 11c): naive
  3. a work by such an artist
  4. a word or concept from which another word or concept is derived
  5. maths a curve, function, or other form from which another is derived
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Derived Formsprimitively, adverbprimitiveness, noun

Word Origin

C14: from Latin prīmitīvus earliest of its kind, primitive, from prīmus first
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for primitiveness

primitive

adj.

late 14c., "of an original cause; of a thing from which something is derived; not secondary" (a sense now associated with primary), from Old French primitif "very first, original" (14c.) and directly from Latin primitivus "first or earliest of its kind," from primitus "at first," from primus "first" (see prime (adj.)).

Meaning "of or belonging to the first age" is from early 15c. Meaning "having the style of an early or ancient time" is from 1680s. In Christian sense of "adhering to the qualities of the early Church" it is recorded from 1680s. Of untrained artists from 1942. Related: Primitively.

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primitive

n.

c.1400, "original ancestor," from Latin primitivus (see primitive (adj.)). Meaning "aboriginal person in a land visited by Europeans" is from 1779, hence the sense "uncivilized person."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
primitiveness in Medicine

primitive

(prĭm′ĭ-tĭv)
adj.
  1. Primary; basic.
  2. Of or being an earliest or original stage.
  3. Being little evolved from an early ancestral type.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
primitiveness in Science

primitive

[prĭm′ĭ-tĭv]
  1. Relating to an early or original stage.
  2. Having evolved very little from an early type. Lampreys and sturgeon are primitive fishes.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.