rudiment
/ˈruːdɪm(ə)nt
/noun
1 (the rudiments of) The first principles of (a subject): she taught the girls the rudiments of reading and writing...
- It neglects the fact that although the rudiments of a task can be picked up quite soon, skills take time to develop, and the process is inhibited by too many job changes, compulsory task rotations, or rapid staff turnover.
- Teaching pupils the rudiments of double-blind tests, clinical trial methods and general principles of factoring studies for other influences would clear these scientific confusions.
- They might just about have grasped the rudiments of e-mail, but they haven't a clue about the new media.
Synonyms
basic principles, basics, fundamentals, elements, essentials, first principles;
beginnings, foundation
informal nuts and bolts, ABC
1.1An elementary or primitive form of (something): the rudiments of a hot-water system...
- Singers and storytellers, the entertainers of those times, included dance in their performances, and created the rudiments of modern theatre, where dialogue takes precedence.
- Using the indigenously available material, they have put together the rudiments of a ‘glider aircraft’, similar in function and style to the imported gliders used only by defence pilots in India.
- The inorganic sediments were covered with poorly decomposed fibric peat accumulations that contained well-preserved rudiments of earlier communities.
2 Biology An undeveloped or immature part or organ, especially a structure in an embryo or larva which will develop into an organ, limb, etc. the fetal lung rudiment...
- It has rudiments of the limb girdles, but no fins.
- All fetuses from whom the testis rudiment had been removed developed as though they were female, as also did those from whom the developing ovary was removed.
- A small posterior element in this limb may be a rudiment of the fifth metacarpal.
3 Music A basic pattern used by drummers, such as the roll, the flam, and the paradiddle.He flows like a slap bassist, performing exhausting rudiments in too-tight spaces with little grace and even less rhythm....
- I was learning the rudiments - the drum rolls, the double bounces, the single bounces.
- Instruction in piano, voice, organ, string, brass, wind and percussion are available for beginners and masters, as well as classes in rudiments, composition and other theoretical subjects.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French, or from Latin rudimentum, from rudis 'unwrought', on the pattern of elementum 'element'.