A person who belongs to an early stage of civilization.

synonym: primitive person.

Dutch: primitief, primitieven
Polish: człowiek kopalny, praczłowiek

A mathematical expression from which another expression is derived.

A word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms.

Belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness:
— Primitive movies of the 1890s.
— Primitive living conditions in the Appalachian mountains.

synonyms: crude, rude.

Roget 66: beginning etc. v.; initial, initiatory, initiative; inceptive, introductory, incipient; proemial^†, inaugural; inchoate, inchoative^†; embryonic, rudimental; primogenial^†; primeval, primitive, primordial etc. (old) 124; aboriginal; natal, nascent.    first, foremost, leading; maiden.    begun etc. v.; just begun etc. v.. ... show more

Roget 153: caused etc. v.; causal, original; primary, primitive, primordial; aboriginal; protogenal^†; radical; embryonic, embryotic^†; in embryo, in ovo [Lat.]; seminal, germinal; at the bottom of; connate, having a common origin.    ... show more

Little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type:
— Primitive mammals.
— The okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe.

synonym: archaic.

Roget 124: old, ancient, antique; of long standing, time-honored, venerable; elder, eldest; firstborn.    prime; primitive, primeval, primigenous^†; paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic^†, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate^†; aboriginal etc. (beginning) 66; diluvian^†, antediluvian; protohistoric^†; prehistoric; antebellum, colonial, precolumbian; patriarchal, preadamite^†; paleocrystic^†; fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial^†, antemundane^†; archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter.    immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary; inveterate, rooted.    antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete; out of date, out of fashion, out of it; stale, old-fashioned, behind the age; old-world; exploded; gone out, gone by; passe, run out; senile etc. 128; time worn; crumbling etc. (deteriorated) 659; secondhand.    old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam^†, old as history.    [geological eras (list, starting at given number of years bp)] Archeozoic [5,000,000,000], Proterozoic [1,500,000,000], Paleozoic [600,000,000], Mesozoic [220,000,000], Cenozoic [70,000,000]. [geological periods] Precambrian, Cambrian [600,000,000], Ordovician [500,000,000], Silurian [440,000,000], Devonian [400,000,000], Mississippian [350,000,000], Pennsylvanian [300,000,000], Permian [270,000,000], Triassic [220,000,000], Jurassic [180,000,000], Cretaceous [135,000,000], Tertiary [70,000,000], Paleogene [70,000,000], Neocene [25,0000,000], Quaternary [1,000,000]. [geological epochs (list, starting at 70,000,000 years bp)] Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent.    ... show more

Used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies.

Of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style:
— Primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking.

synonym: naive.