primitive
/ˈpɹɪmɪtɪv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.80 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative.
noun
Primitive or primeval nature; the innate, instinctive element within a person; the deep, instinctive, precultural layer of human nature.
noun
Natural or premodern environment or conditions; life lacking modern technology and society.
noun
noun
A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures.
noun
Any of the simplest elements (instructions, statements, etc.) available in a programming language.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "A write-what-where primitive allows the attacker to write arbitrary data wherever they want in the memory"
- "primitive innocence; the primitive church"
- "it is from such primitive beings that the highest organisms now extant are the marvellously developed descendants"
- ""The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: primitif, prīmitīvus
Usage
Inflected Forms
primitives (plural)
primative (alternative, obsolete)
more primitive (comparative)
most primitive (superlative)