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adj. 1. a. Of or relating to an early or original stage or state; primeval: life in the primitive ocean. b. Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution: fossils of primitive angiosperms from the Cretaceous Period. c. Having developed early in the evolutionary history of a group: Hair is a primitive trait of mammals. d. Regarded as having changed little in evolutionary history. Not in scientific use: The coelacanth is a primitive fish. 2. Characterized by simplicity or crudity; unsophisticated: primitive weapons. 3. Of or relating to a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially one that is characterized by an absence of literacy and a low level of economic or technological complexity: primitive societies. 4. Not derived from something else; primary or basic: "Conscious perception is ... the most primitive form of judgment" (Alfred North Whitehead). 5. Linguistics a. Serving as the basis for derived or inflected forms: Pick is the primitive word from which picket is derived. b. Being a protolanguage: primitive Germanic. 6. Not resulting from conscious thought or deliberation; unconscious or instinctual: primitive passions. 7. a. Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style. b. Of or relating to late medieval or pre-Renaissance European painters or sculptors. n. 1. A person belonging to a nonindustrial, often tribal society, especially a society characterized by a low level of economic or technological complexity. 2. Derogatory An unsophisticated or unintelligent person. 3. One that is at a low or early stage of development. 4. a. One belonging to an early stage in the development of an artistic trend, especially a painter of the pre-Renaissance period. b. An artist having or affecting a simple, direct, unschooled style, as of painting. c. A work of art created by a primitive artist. 5. Linguistics a. A word or word element from which another word is derived by morphological or historical processes or from which inflected forms are derived. b. A basic and indivisible unit of linguistic analysis. Also called prime. 6. Mathematics An algebraic or geometric expression from which another expression is derived. 7. Computers 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 the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] primi·tive·ly adv. primi·tive·ness, prim′i·tivi·ty n. |
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