being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world: primitive forms of life.
early in the history of the world or of humankind.
characteristic of early ages or of an early state of human development: primitive toolmaking.
Anthropology. (no longer in technical use) of or relating to a preliterate or tribal people having cultural or physical similarities with their early ancestors.
unaffected or little affected by civilizing influences; uncivilized: primitive passions.
being in its earliest period; early: the primitive phase of the history of a town.
old-fashioned: primitive ideas and habits.
simple; unsophisticated: a primitive farm implement.
crude; unrefined: primitive living conditions.
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.
primary, as distinguished from secondary.
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
someone or something primitive.
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.
Mathematics.
a geometric or algebraic form or expression from which another is derived.
a function of which the derivative is a given function.
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.
Origin of primitive
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (noun and adjective) (from Middle French primitif), from Latin prīmitīvus “first of its kind.” See prime, -itive
When the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, its primitive rockets had a range of no more than 25 miles.
Hamas Has Already Won Its Rocket War With Israel|Eli Lake|July 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sometimes this tenacity breaks its bounds, spilling into the primitive.
Luis Suarez, Uruguay’s Notorious Soccer Vampire, Strikes Again—Biting Italian in World Cup Win|Tunku Varadarajan|June 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The African Christians soon formed one of the principal members of the primitive church.
The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|Edward Gibbon
In his primitive condition, man personified everything in nature.
British Goblins|Wirt Sikes
The white-coated hand had dumped another mass into the primitive engine of war.
Brood of the Dark Moon|Charles Willard Diffin
Apparently a small population restricted to a small island tends to revert to the primitive type.
Speciation in the Brazilian Spiny Rats|Joo Moojen
Novel spectacle was this on the wild and primitive shore of Florida.
Makers and Romance of Alabama History|B. F. Riley
British Dictionary definitions for primitive
primitive
/ (ˈprɪmɪtɪv) /
adjective
of or belonging to the first or beginning; original
characteristic of an early state, esp in being crude or uncivilizeda primitive dwelling
anthropoldenoting or relating to a preliterate and nonindustrial social system
biology
of, relating to, or resembling an early stage in the evolutionary development of a particular group of organismsprimitive amphibians
another word for primordial (def. 3)
showing the characteristics of primitive painters; untrained, childlike, or naive
geologypertaining to magmas that have experienced only small degrees of fractional crystallization or crystal contamination
obsoleteof, relating to, or denoting rocks formed in or before the Palaeozoic era
obsoletedenoting a word from which another word is derived, as for example hope, from which hopeless is derived
Protestant theolof, 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
a primitive person or thing
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 untrainedAlso called (for senses 11a, 11c): naive
a work by such an artist
a word or concept from which another word or concept is derived
mathsa curve, function, or other form from which another is derived
Derived forms of primitive
primitively, adverbprimitiveness, noun
Word Origin for primitive
C14: from Latin prīmitīvus earliest of its kind, primitive, from prīmus first