Thesaurus: primitive

Related headwords

Definitions

1. a. Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church.
2. a. Of or pertaining to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity; as, a primitive style of dress.
3. a. Original; primary; radical; not derived; as, primitive verb in grammar.
4. n. An word/original">original or word/primary">primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative.
5. adj. belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness
6. adj. little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
7. adj. used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies
8. adj. of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style
9. n. a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization
10. n. a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived
11. n. a word word/serving">serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms
12. 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 coördinate (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 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. An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; - - opposed to derivative.