primordialadj.n.
/prʌɪˈmɔːdɪəl/, U.S. /praɪˈmɔrdiəl/ A. adj.† 5. Of the first order or rank. Obsolete. rare.
1.
a. Of, relating to, or existing from the very beginning of time; earliest in time; primeval, primitive; (more generally) ancient, distant in time.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > primitive or early
earlyOE
formerc1374
primordiala1398
primec1429
primer1448
primitivea1475
pristinate1531
prisk1533
pristine1534
primordiate1599
primigenial1602
primitial1602
primigenie1615
primigenious1620
primigene1623
primogenious1625
primogeniala1631
primevea1640
primogenian1650
pristinary1652
primeval1653
primevous1656
protogeneous1660
primigenous1677
primo-primitive1678
antediluvian1705
priscal1831
archaic1833
primigenian1847
Palaeozoic1863
priscan1870
aboriginary1993
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 104 To þe makinge of þis world, þe vertu of god made primordial [L. primordialem] mater, in þe whiche..þe foure elementis were vertualliche and nouȝt distinguid.
1486 in J. Raine Vol. Eng. Misc. N. Counties Eng. (1890) 55 Theiz premordiall princes of this principalitie.
a1500 Hymnal in R. S. Loomis Medieval Stud. in Memory G. S. Loomis (1927) 468 (MED) Lat vs avvise thys dey primordiall, Thys primer day, os scripture doth devisse, Of deys all þe fyrst and principall, The world was made, and crist frome deth did ryse.
a1626 L. Andrewes Serm. (1856) I. 385 Abstinence is a virtue..Sure I am the ‘primordiale peccatum’, the primordial sin was not abstaining.
1687 T. Kemeys Veritas Evangelica 98 There would have remained illustrious Memory thereof, at least in some of the primordial Churches.
1705 Acct. Origin & Formation Fossil-shells 57 It being supposed that the primordial State of animated Beings (Man's excepted) was in their Seed or Sperm, [etc.].
1750 T. Short New Observ. Bills of Mortality 488 It is absolutely impossible now to tell what the Primordial and Post-diluvian State of the Earth was, what Countries were then continuous or separated, [etc.].
1840 T. Moore Poet. Wks. II. 67 Him Who, many a night, with his primordial lyre Sate on the chill Pangæan mount.
1857 Times 19 Jan. 6/3 These primordial features of human nature are not so cowed by centuries of upper class schooling.
1891 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 20 319 All the theories hitherto advanced..imply that the primordial mind had effaced all signs of its pre-intellectual ancestry.
1900 J. London In Far Country in Son of Wolf 70 The man who turns his back upon the comforts of an elder civilization, to face the savage youth, the primordial simplicity of the North, may estimate success at an inverse ratio to the quantity and quality of his..fixed habits.
1924 Amer. Mercury Sept. 47/1 Even among those primordial farm bloccers..from the pioneer states, concessions were sometimes made to the aristocratic tradition.
1979 D. Thomas Swinburne i. 26 He had compared his childhood world to the primordial beauty of ancient Greece.
1994 Nature Conservancy May 17/1 A living fossil, if you will, little changed since an ancestral turtle crawled into primordial brine 200,000 million years ago.
b. Astronomy. Of or relating to the early universe, or the earliest stage in the formation of a star, planet, etc.
ΚΠ
1902 Science 19 Dec. 994/2 In the formation of the atoms from primordial matter less and less atoms of highest atomic mass were evolved.
1946 A. Eddington Expanding Universe ii. 51 We have to consider what kind of spontaneous disturbance could occur in the primordial distribution of matter from which our galaxies and stars have been evolved.
1973 G. J. McCall Meteorites & Their Origins xiv. 187 The high oxidation state and volatile content of these meteorites indicates a close relationship to the primordial dust of the parental solar nebula.
1997 C. P. McKay & R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Planetary Sci. 495/2 A flask containing a mixture of gases thought to be representative of the atmosphere of the primordial Earth.
2003 Wired July 156/1 A particle accelerator might cause a tiny bit of space to undergo a ‘phase transition’ back to the primordial not-anything condition that preceded the big bang.
2. That constitutes the origin or starting point from which something else is derived or developed, or on which something else depends; fundamental, basic; elemental.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > [adjective]
mother?c1225
originalc1350
radicala1398
primitive?a1425
fundamentalc1449
primordial?a1450
primea1500
primary1565
nativea1592
fundamentive1593
primordiate1599
primara1603
remote1605
originousa1637
originary1638
parental1647
principiate1654
fontal1656
underivative1656
underived1656
fountainous1662
first hand1699
matricular1793
first-handed1855
protomorphic1887
?a1450 ( J. Lydgate Serpent of Division (McClean) (1911) 65 (MED) Þe fretynge envie of Pompeyus, and þe vnstawncheable gredy covetise of Marcus Crassus were chefe and primordiall cause firste of here owne distruccion, execute and complissched bi cruell deþe, and..occasion of many a þowsande oþer mo.
a1529 J. Skelton Poems against Garnesche in Poet Wks. (1843) I. 129 It plesyth that noble prince roialle Me as hys master for to calle In hys lernyng primordialle.
1577 R. Holinshed Hist. Scotl. 20/1 in Chron. I They named Nature, and as it were the prymordiall cause or beginning of all things.
1666 R. Boyle Origine Formes & Qualities 388 Primordial Textures (if I may so call them).
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. v. 837 Being no Simple Primitive and Primordial thing, but Secondary, Compounded and Derivative.
1794 G. Adams Lect. Nat. & Exper. Philos. IV. xliii. 207 The primordial threads, or first principle of the texture, are utterly undiscernable.
1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 327 The primordial chaotic fluid, in whose bosom most stones were formed.
1856 P. E. Dove Logic Christian Faith v. ii. 323 Space and time are the primordial necessaries of thought.
1893 H. D. Traill Social England I. Introd. 53 A primordial instinct of human nature insures this concurrence and maintains it.
1919 C. G. Jung in Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. 10 22 A factor determining the uniformity and regularity of our apprehension..I term the archetype, the primordial image.
1949 A. Koestler Insight & Outlook xxiii. 323 Examples of such archetypes or primordial experiences are..the incest-motif.
2004 Church Times 23 July 16/5 The glorification of Jesus, his primordial existence as the Word, and his audacious use of the words ‘I am’ are acknowledged indices of a high Christology in the Fourth Gospel.
3.
a. Botany. Of or relating to the first leaves (esp. cotyledons), fruit, etc., to appear or to develop.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > growth, movement, or curvature of parts > [adjective] > earliest formed
primordial1773
1773 W. Hanbury Compl. Body Planting & Gardening I. 232/1 The leaves are long, very ornamental, of a fine sea-green colour, and grow by two together, though the primordial ones are single and ciliated.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xxviii. 444 The Scotch Pine..has two leaves in a sheath; and the primordial ones solitary and smooth.
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 247 When fascicled, the primordial leaf to which they are then axillary is membranous, and enwraps them like a sheath.
1851 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. (ed. 2) §168 The first leaves developed are denominated seminal..or cotyledons..and those which succeed are primordial.
1888 G. Henslow Origin Floral Structures 10 Opposite leaves present a more primitive type than alternate; that this is so, is not only reasonable from the primordial position of the cotyledons.., but the transition from an opposite to an alternate condition may be witnessed on rapidly growing stems.
1890 Cent. Dict. Primordial, first formed: applied to the first true leaves formed by a young plant, also to the first fruit produced on a raceme or spike.
1968 BioScience 18 649/2 The scutella was removed from each tissue, the primordial leaf separated from the coleoptile, and peroxidase activity determined in each of the fractions.
1995 Watsonia 20 282 Basal leaves (0–) 3–5 (–7)..the primordial small, subrotund..the later basal leaves larger, but otherwise similar.
b. Biology. Of a part or structure: in the first or an early stage of formation or growth (either temporary and subsequently replaced, or developing into the mature form); in a simple or rudimentary condition; = primitive adj. 7b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > growth > stages of
primordial1786
primitive1833
primary1844
secondary1857
the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [adjective] > in rudimentary condition
primordial1849
initial1884
1786 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 76 448 New ones are formed above, under, or at the sides of the primordial or temporary teeth, but in different sockets.
1849 E. Lankester tr. M. J. Schleiden Princ. Sci. Bot. 569 Mohl asserts that the primordial utricle is the forerunner of the formation of the cellulose cell-wall.
1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life p. xxxv In all Vertebrata above the Amphibia, a primordial as well as a secondary kidney is developed.
1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 126 The outermost layer of the primary meristem which covers the punctum vegetationis together with its apex is the immediate continuation of the epidermis of the older part which lies further backwards; it may therefore be termed the Primordial Epidermis.
1947 A. D. Imms Outl. Entomol. (ed. 3) iii. 79 Before the blastoderm is complete some of the dividing cells pass to the posterior pole of the egg..forming the primordial germ cells.
1974 T. E. Weier et al. Botany (ed. 5) vii. 108/1 Primordial buds may occur in the axils of the more advanced leaf primordia.
2002 S. Nader in S. Wilansky & J. T. Willerson Heart Dis. in Women ii. 42 These primordial follicles mature variably, with proliferation of granulosa cells, before undergoing atresia.
4. † a. Geology. = primitive adj. 8. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > stratigraphic units > [adjective] > pre-Cambrian
primitive1779
primordial1794
primary1795
Protozoic1838
prozoic1845
Cryptozoic1911
1794 R. Kirwan Elements Mineral. (ed. 2) I. 285 In the primordial stones of Vesuvius.
1802 J. Playfair Illustr. Huttonian Theory 161 De Luc..applies the term primordial to the rocks in question and considers them as neither stratified nor formed by water.
1891 Amer. Naturalist 25 855 I pass over the primordial rocks, very imperfectly studied as yet in South America. The Paleozoic rocks are better known, and offer great interest.
b. Palaeontology and Geology. Of, relating to, or designating an ancient fossil fauna discovered in the mid 19th cent. and the series of strata in which it is found, now generally regarded as Cambrian in age. Now historical.The term Primordial was applied to the oldest of the three fossiliferous stages described in Bohemia by J. Barrande in 1846, and subsequently extended to equivalent strata in other regions (partly corresponding to the earlier Taconic of Emmons and Cambrian of Sedgwick).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > stratigraphic units > [adjective] > primary or Palaeozoic
primal1858
primordial1859
primary1871
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species ix. 307 Traces of life have been detected in the Longmynd beds beneath Barrande's so-called primordial zone.
1867 Proc. Royal Soc. 1866–7 15 379 The Primordial genera at present known in America are 134.
1885 C. Lyell Elem. Geol. (ed. 4) xxviii. 454 These primordial Trilobites have a peculiar facies of their own.
1925 P. Radin & V. C. C. Collum tr. E. Perrier Earth before Hist. i. ii. 23 In the Cambrian deposits there appears a very complete fauna which the famous geologist Joachim de Barrande regarded as the oldest of all, and to which he gave the name of primordial fauna.
1978 Isis 69 182 The widespread existence of First or Primordial fauna, identifying the true beginning of the geological column and the earliest geological system of life-bearing strata, was beginning to be acknowledged.
ΚΠ
1849 Fraser's Mag. 39 383 From the time of Bossuet..no primordial champion of Catholicism arose in France.
B. n.† 2. A variety of early plum; = primordian n. Obsolete. rare.
1. A primeval, original, or fundamental thing; a beginning or origin; a first principle.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > [noun]
welleOE
mothereOE
ordeOE
wellspringeOE
fathereOE
headeOE
oreOE
wellspringOE
rootc1175
morea1200
beginningc1200
head wella1325
sourcec1374
principlea1382
risinga1382
springinga1382
fountain14..
springerc1410
nativity?a1425
racinea1425
spring1435
headspring?a1439
seminaryc1440
originationc1443
spring wellc1450
sourdre1477
primordialc1487
naissance1490
wellhead?1492
offspringa1500
conduit-head1517
damc1540
springhead1547
principium1550
mint1555
principal1555
centre1557
head fountain1563
parentage1581
rise1589
spawna1591
fount1594
parent1597
taproot1601
origin1604
fountainhead1606
radix1607
springa1616
abundary1622
rist1622
primitive1628
primary1632
land-spring1642
extraction1655
upstart1669
progenerator1692
fontala1711
well-eye1826
first birth1838
ancestry1880
Quelle1893
the world > existence and causation > causation > basis or foundation > [noun] > basis or fundamental principle
principlea1398
basec1500
principium1550
primordial1610
basisa1616
element1655
radical1656
principe1669
seminiuma1676
ultimate1710
rock beda1853
ultimatum1858
rock-bottom1866
ultimity1898
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical reasoning > [noun] > deductivism or a priori reasoning > axioms
philosophia prima1605
outlines1691
basis1796
primordial1813
generalia1843
prima philosophia1845
primary1846
axiomatic1927
c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica i. 13 From the first premordial of thynges, heuen & erthe had one ideal inmyxte with their nature.
1522 J. Skelton Why come ye nat to Courte 486 The primordyall Of his wretched originall.
1610 G. Marcelline Triumphs King James 85 It consisteth of 3. Letters..as the primordials and Radicall Letters of the Hæbrewes.
1668 H. More Divine Dialogues i. 37 The Primordialls of the World are not Mechanicall, but Spermaticall or Vital.
1707 R. Franck Admirable & Indefatigable Adventures Nine Pious Pilgrims 174 When time is no more;..and the Graves of themselves shall yield up their Dead; and every thing result in its first Primordials.
1777 J. Wise System I. 9 Let us suppose..Primordials did exist without a cause.
1813 T. Busby in tr. Lucretius Nature of Things I. p. iv Like his own primordials, they are not only indestructible, but unassailable.
1892 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 19 314 Before the primordials have broken through the surface, the ascus bearing hyphæ may arise.
1920 G. S. Hall Morale xiii. 212 The impulse to act, feel, and think in masses or groups is one of the great primordials.
1992 D. S. Wright Rethinking Transcendence 118 The movement from primordial experience to linguistic articulation cannot occur without presupposing distinctions, judgments, and meanings already present within the primordial.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [noun] > stone fruit > plum > other types of
white plumc1330
bullacea1375
myxe?1440
prunelloa1450
bullace-fruit1530
horse plum1530
plum1530
wheat-plum1538
wheaten plum1542
choke-plum1556
pear plum1573
finger plum1577
scad1577
skeg1601
merchant1602
bullace-plum1608
malacadonian1608
prune plum1613
date plum1626
mussel plum1626
amber plum1629
black plum1629
primordian1629
queen mother1629
winter crack1629
myrobalan1630
Christian1651
Monsieur's plum1658
cinnamon-plum1664
date1664
primordial1664
Orleans1674
mirabelle1706
myrobalan plum1708
Mogul1718
mussel1718
Chickasaw plum1760
blue gage1764
magnum bonum1764
golden drop1772
beach-plum1785
sweet plum1796
winesour1836
wild plum1838
quetsch1839
egg-plum1859
Victoria1860
cherry plum1866
bladder-plum1869
prune1872
sour plum1874
Carlsbad plum1885
horse-jug1886
French plum1939
1664 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense 70 in Sylva Plums, &c. Primordial, Myrobalan..Damasc.
1756 Reid's Scots Gardiner (rev. ed.) 142 Of Plumbs, Primordials, Mussel, Imperials, &c.
Compounds
primordial cell n. Biology (a) a cell, esp. in an undifferentiated state, which acts as the progenitor for other cell types (cf. stem cell n. (b) at stem n.1 Compounds 2); †(b) a plant cell in its most rudimentary form, without a cell wall, vacuoles, etc., consisting only of a mass of protoplasm (obsolete); also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [noun] > cell > types of > initial cell
primordial cell1845
initial1914
1845 R. Owen Odontography I. i. i. 13 Every secretive process and the development of the primordial cells of every tissue are due to changes produced in the liquor sanguinis.
1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. i. i. 5 It has hence become usual even to consider a protoplasmic body of this kind as a cell, and to designate it as a naked membraneless cell or Primordial Cell [Ger. primordiale Zelle].
1893 in J. H. Barrows World's Parl. Relig. II. 1481 The primordial cell of organic Methodism is the class-meeting.
?1920 B. M. Patten Early Embryol. of Chick 108 Many structures which later become of great importance are not represented even by primordial cell aggregations.
2005 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 20 Feb. a1 Tom had been reading about stem cells..and knew them to be the next frontier of medicine, the primordial cells that could become unblemished tissue of any type.
primordial meristem n. Botany now rare = promeristem n. at pro- prefix2 1.
ΚΠ
1912 S. J. Record Identification of Econ. Woods of United States 11 At the apex of a growing stem is an undifferentiated tissue composed of very thin-walled cells essentially all alike. This tissue is known as the primordial meristem.
1997 Ecology 78 2111/1 Although leaf damage did not affect the presence or absence of a catkin in the next year, primordial meristems in reproductive shoots presumably were weakened.
primordial soup n. Biology a solution, rich in organic compounds, which is thought (by many scientists) to have been the environment in which complex biological molecules and hence life originated (see soup n. 1b); also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [noun] > primordial soup
Urschleim1921
primordial soup1962
prebiotic soup1966
1962 D. J. Merrell Evol. & Genetics 64 It has also been proposed that the long polypeptide chains were first formed by polymerization in, for example, a dried-up pool in the absence of water rather than in the primordial ‘soup’.
1998 J. Uglow in J. Treglown & B. Bennett Grub St. & Ivory Tower i. 3 Fielding began writing for journals at the end of the 1730s. His experimental practice..may provide a glimpse, at least, of the primordial soup from which modern literary journalism emerged.
2002 Science 15 Mar. 2006 Simple chemicals in a cozy puddle of primordial soup first assembled themselves into the precursors of the earliest forms of life some 4 billion years ago.
primordial utricle n. [after German Primordialschlauch (H. von Mohl 1844, in Bot. Zeitung 2 275); compare scientific Latin utriculus primordialis on the same page] Botany (now historical) the protoplasmic lining formed on the inner side of the cell wall as it expands.
ΚΠ
1849 E. Lankester tr. M. J. Schleiden Princ. Sci. Bot. 569 Mohl asserts that the primordial utricle is the forerunner of the formation of the cellulose cell-wall.
1914 M. Drummond tr. G. Haberlandt Physiol. Plant Anat. i. 21 The protoplast, with its attendant organs, assumes the form of a peripheral layer of varying thickness (the ‘primordial utricle’ of v. Mohl), which adheres to the inner surface of the cell-wall.
1976 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 63 691/2 A coagulated mucilage enclosed in a thin membrane—the ‘primordial utricle’ for the cytoplasmic contents in what he called sieve tubes.
Derivatives
priˈmordialism n. = primordiality n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [noun] > primitiveness or primevalness
primevity1610
primeness1611
primevalness1727
primitivity1759
primeval1826
primitiveness1856
primalism1872
primordialism1879
primevalism1893
1879 H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. iv. §343 Yet another indication of primordialism may be named... Even between intimates greetings signifying continuance of respect, begin each renewal of intercourse.
1939 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 47 891 The chapter..covers economic history from the earliest records of Egypt and Babylonia through Hellenic and Roman civilization and the early Middle Ages—all as episodes or stages of primordialism.
2001 V. Prashad Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting ii. 39 If color blindness occludes the structures and practices of actually existing racism, a kind of primordialism puts too much stake in race.
primordiˈality n. the state, condition, or quality of being primordial; (also) an instance of this, a primordial thing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > basis or foundation > [noun] > state of being fundamental
fundamentality1641
radicality1646
radicity1651
primordiality1706
ultimacy1842
1706 R. Brocklesby Explic. Gospel-theism ii. iv. 237/1 Agreeably to the Platonists these Cabalists say of their Primordiality or Supreme Deity..Neither the number One, nor Multitude, nor Existence is predicated of it.
1874 W. Wallace tr. G. W. F. Hegel Logic 297 The cause therefore appears as passing into its correlative, and to be losing its primordiality in the latter.
1889 H. F. Wood Englishman Rue Caïn xiv. 206 There be those that have construed simple grandeurs, grand simplicities, from idyllic gold-fields, to mean primordialities which, elsewhere, receive much precious time and space from the assize court and the gaol.
1933 Jrnl. Philos. 30 120 Tendencies which threaten to deny the primordiality and autonomy of logic.
2004 Times Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) (Nexis) 10 Mar. d8 The primordiality simmering beneath Electra's grim formalism is further underscored by music and sound effects.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.a1398