<p><strong>Adjective</strong></p><ul><li>being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world: primitive forms of life.</li><li>Synonyms: pristine, antediluvian, original, primordial, primary, primal, prehistoric</li><li>early in the history of the world or of humankind.</li><li>characteristic of early ages or of an early state of human development: primitive toolmaking.</li><li>Anthropology: (no longer in technical use) of or relating to a preliterate or tribal people having cultural or physical similarities with their early ancestors.</li><li>unaffected or little affected by civilizing influences; uncivilized: primitive passions.</li><li>being in its earliest period; early: the primitive phase of the history of a town.</li><li>old-fashioned: primitive ideas and habits.</li><li>simple; unsophisticated: a primitive farm implement.</li><li>crude; unrefined: primitive living conditions.</li><li>Linguistics: of or relating to a form from which a word or other linguistic form is derived; not derivative; original or radical.</li><li>of or relating to a protolanguage.</li><li>of or relating to a linguistic prime.</li><li>primary, as distinguished from secondary.</li><li>Biology: rudimentary; primordial.</li><li>noting species, varieties, etc., only slightly evolved from early antecedent types.</li><li>of early formation and temporary, as a part that subsequently disappears.</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>someone or something primitive.</li><li>Fine Arts: an artist of a preliterate culture.</li><li>a naive or unschooled artist.</li><li>an artist belonging to the early stage in the development of a style.</li><li>a work of art by a primitive artist.</li><li>Mathematics: a geometric or algebraic form or expression from which another is derived.</li><li>a function of which the derivative is a given function.</li><li>Linguistics: the form from which a given word or other linguistic form has been derived, by either morphological or historical processes, as take in undertake.</li></ul>