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Primitive

//ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv// adj, noun

Definitions

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

    "primitive innocence; the primitive church"

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

    "a primitive style of dress"

  3. 3
    Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity.; Relating to an art style characterized by asymmetrical shapes and faded colors.

    "I used primitive hearts to decorate the quilt."

  4. 4
    Crude, obsolete.

    "primitive ideas"

  5. 5
    Original; primary; radical; not derived.

    "a primitive verb"

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.
  2. 7
    Not derived from another of the same type
  3. 8
    most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of dated

    "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)."

Adjective
  1. 1
    used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies wordnet
  2. 2
    little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type wordnet
  3. 3
    belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness wordnet
  4. 4
    of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    An original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.
  2. 2
    a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms wordnet
  3. 3
    A member of a primitive society.
  4. 4
    a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived wordnet
  5. 5
    A simple-minded person.
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization wordnet
  2. 7
    A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures.
  3. 8
    Any of the simplest elements (instructions, statements, etc.) available in a programming language.

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

  4. 9
    A basic geometric shape from which more complex shapes can be constructed.
  5. 10
    A function whose derivative is a given function; an antiderivative.

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

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