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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.

of or relating to a form from which a word or other linguistic form is derived; not derivative; original or radical.
of or relating to a protolanguage.
of or relating to a linguistic prime.

11.
primary, as distinguished from secondary.
12.
Biology.

rudimentary; primordial.
noting species, varieties, etc., only slightly evolved from early antecedent types.
of early formation and temporary, as a part that subsequently disappears.

noun
13.
someone or something primitive.
14.
Fine Arts.

an artist of a preliterate culture.
a naive or unschooled artist.
an artist belonging to the early stage in the development of a style.
a work of art by a primitive artist.

15.
Mathematics.

a geometric or algebraic form or expression from which another is derived.
a function of which the derivative is a given function.

16.
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.
adjective
1.
of or belonging to the first or beginning; original
2.
characteristic of an early state, esp in being crude or uncivilized: a primitive dwelling
3.
(anthropol) denoting or relating to a preliterate and nonindustrial social system
4.
(biology)

of, relating to, or resembling an early stage in the evolutionary development of a particular group of organisms: primitive amphibians
another word for primordial (sense 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
noun
10.
a primitive person or thing
11.

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
a painter of the pre-Renaissance era in European painting
a painter of any era whose work appears childlike or untrained Also called (for senses 11a, 11c) naive

12.
a work by such an artist
13.
a word or concept from which another word or concept is derived
14.
(maths) a curve, function, or other form from which another is derived

primitive prim·i·tive (prĭm’ĭ-tĭv)
adj.

Primary; basic.

Of or being an earliest or original stage.

Being little evolved from an early ancestral type.

prim’i·tive·ness or prim’i·tiv’i·ty n.
primitive
(prĭm’ĭ-tĭv)

Relating to an early or original stage.

Having evolved very little from an early type. Lampreys and sturgeon are primitive fishes.

programming
A function, operator, or type which is built into a programming language (or operating system), either for speed of execution or because it would be impossible to write it in the language. Primitives typically include the arithmetic and logical operations (plus, minus, and, or, etc.) and are implemented by a small number of machine language instructions.
(1995-05-01)