primitive

• primative (obsolete)

From Middle English primitif, from Old French primitif, from Latin prīmitīvus (“first or earliest of its kind”), from prīmus (“first”); see prime. Doublet of primitivo.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɪmɪtɪv
• Hyphenation: prim‧i‧tive

primitive (plural primitives)

1. (linguistics) An original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.
2. A member of a primitive society.
3. Primitive or primeval nature; the innate, instinctive element within a person; the deep, instinctive, precultural layer of human nature.
   • 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 54:

     It may be that, living among primitive surroundings, the dormant primitive deep within the white man is drawn towards the absolute primitive in the aboriginal.

4. Natural or premodern environment or conditions; life lacking modern technology and society.
   • 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 113:

     Out there in the primitive, white-man Rust had made his tools out of the primitive, as these stone-age people were making excellent string from the primitive.

5. A simple-minded person.
6. (programming) A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures.
7. (programming) Any of the simplest elements (instructions, statements, etc.) available in a programming language.^[1]
   • 2021, Arti Noor, Abhijit Sen, Gaurav Trivedi, Proceedings of Emerging Trends and Technologies on Intelligent Systems: ETTIS 2021, page 26:

     A write-what-where primitive allows the attacker to write arbitrary data wherever they want in the memory

8. A basic geometric shape from which more complex shapes can be constructed.
9. (mathematics) A function whose derivative is a given function; an antiderivative.

• (word): primitive word, radical, radical word

• modern primitive

primitive (comparative more primitive, superlative most primitive)

1. Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first.

   Synonyms: incipient, nascent, primary; see also Thesaurus:initial

   primitive innocence;   the primitive church

   • 1895, Edmund Montgomery, “To Be Alive, What is it?”, in The Monist:

     it is from such primitive beings that the highest organisms now extant are the marvellously developed descendants

   • 2025 September 27, Julia Jacobo, “Million-year-old skull could rewrite timeline of human origin, researchers say”, in ABC News‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 February 2026:

     "The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.

2. Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity.

   Synonyms: backwards, old-timey (informal), retro

   a primitive style of dress

   1. Relating to an art style characterized by asymmetrical shapes and faded colors.

      I used primitive hearts to decorate the quilt.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.

   • 1951 August, “The Why and the Wherefore: The West Sussex Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 573:

     The intermediate stations were of the most primitive type.

   • 1959, Mircea Eliade, “Introduction”, in Willard R. Trask, transl., The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harvest Book; HB 144), New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →ISBN, page 11:

     It could be said that the history of religions—from the most primitive to the most highly developed—is constituted by a great number of hierophanies, by manifestations of sacred realities.

3. Crude, obsolete.

   Synonyms: rudimentary, undeveloped; antiquated, outworn; see also Thesaurus:crude, Thesaurus:obsolete

   primitive ideas

4. (grammar) Original; primary; radical; not derived.

   Synonym: radical

   Antonyms: derivative, derived

   a primitive verb

   The primitive root in "children" is "child."

   • 1831, Noah Webster, Rudiments of English Grammar; Being an Abridgment of the Improved Grammar of the English Language, New-Haven, page 6:

     Division of words. Words are primitive or radical, and derivative or compound.
     Of primitive words. Primitive or radical words are such as cannot be divided, or separated into parts which are significant; as man, hope, bless.

5. (biology, dated) Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.
6. (mathematics) Not derived from another of the same type

   Synonym: imprimitive

7. (linguistics, dated) most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of

   Synonym: proto-

   • 1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, Henry Holt, page 13:

     We infer that other groups of related languages, such as the Germanic (or the Slavic or the Celtic), which show a similar resemblance, have arisen in the same way; it is only an accident of history that for these groups we have no written records of the earlier state of the language, as it was spoken before the differentiation set in. To these unrecorded languages we give names like Primitive Germanic (Primitive Slavic, Primitive Celtic, and so on).

• IPA^(key): /pʁi.mi.tiv/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

primitive

1. feminine singular of primitif

Ellipsis of fonction primitive.

primitive f (plural primitives)

1. (mathematics) antiderivative

   Coordinate term: dérivée

• intégrale

• “primitive”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

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primitive

1. inflection of primitiv:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

primitive

1. feminine plural of primitivo

prīmitīve

1. vocative masculine singular of prīmitīvus

primitive

1. definite singular of primitiv
2. plural of primitiv

primitive

1. definite singular of primitiv
2. plural of primitiv