Meaning & Definition of Primitive in English

1. A person who belongs to an early stage of civilization

2. A mathematical expression from which another expression is derived

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

• "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"

1. Belonging to an early stage of technical development

• Characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness

• "The crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man"

• "Primitive movies of the 1890s"

• "Primitive living conditions in the appalachian mountains"

2. Little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type

• "Archaic forms of life"

• "Primitive mammals"

• "The okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe"

3. Used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies

• "Primitive societies"

4. 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"