Not derived from something else; primary or basic.
Of or relating to an earliest or original stage or state; primeval.
Being little evolved from an early ancestral type.
Serving as the basis for derived or inflected forms: Pick is the primitive word from which picket is derived.
Being a protolanguage: primitive Germanic.
Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style.
Of or relating to the work of an artist from a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially a culture that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity.
Characterized by simplicity or crudity; unsophisticated: primitive weapons. See Synonyms at rude.
Anthropology Of or relating to a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially one that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity: primitive societies.
Linguistics
Serving as the basis for derived or inflected forms: Pick is the primitive word from which picket is derived.
Being a protolanguage: primitive Germanic.
Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style.
Of or relating to the work of an artist from a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially a culture that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity.
Relating or belonging to forces of nature; elemental: primitive passions.
Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style.
Of or relating to the work of an artist from a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially a culture that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity.
Of or relating to late medieval or pre-Renaissance European painters or sculptors.
Biology Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.
n.
Anthropology A person belonging to a nonindustrial, often tribal society, especially a society characterized by a low level of economic complexity.
An unsophisticated person.
One that is at a low or early stage of development.
One belonging to an early stage in the development of an artistic trend, especially a painter of the pre-Renaissance period.
An artist having or affecting a simple, direct, unschooled style, as of painting.
A self-taught artist.
A work of art created by a primitive artist.
A word or word element from which another word is derived by morphological or historical processes or from which inflected forms are derived.
A basic and indivisible unit of linguistic analysis. Also called prime.
Linguistics
A word or word element from which another word is derived by morphological or historical processes or from which inflected forms are derived.
A basic and indivisible unit of linguistic analysis. Also called prime.
Mathematics An algebraic or geometric expression from which another expression is derived.
Computer Science A basic or fundamental unit of machine instruction or translation.
[Middle English, from Old French primitif, primitive, from Latin prīmitīvus, from prīmitus, at first, from prīmus, first; see per1 in Indo-European roots.]
prim'i·tive·ly adv., prim'i·tive·ness, prim'i·tiv'i·ty n.
![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Audio Help (prĭm'ĭ-tĭv) Pronunciation Key
