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adj.

1. Not derived from something else; primary or basic.
2. 1. Of or relating to an earliest or original stage or state; primeval.
   2. Being little evolved from an early ancestral type.
3. Characterized by simplicity or crudity; unsophisticated: primitive weapons. See synonyms at rude.
4. Anthropology. Of or relating to a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially one that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity: primitive societies.
5. Linguistics.
   1. Serving as the basis for derived or inflected forms: Pick is the primitive word from which picket is derived.
   2. Being a protolanguage: primitive Germanic.
6. Relating or belonging to forces of nature; elemental: primitive passions.
7. 1. Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style.
   2. Of or relating to the work of an artist from a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially a culture that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity.
8. Of or relating to late medieval or pre-Renaissance European painters or sculptors.
9. Biology. Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution.

n.

1. Anthropology. A person belonging to a nonindustrial, often tribal society, especially a society characterized by a low level of economic complexity.
2. An unsophisticated person.
3. One that is at a low or early stage of development.
4. 1. One belonging to an early stage in the development of an artistic trend, especially a painter of the pre-Renaissance period.
   2. An artist having or affecting a simple, direct, unschooled style, as of painting.
   3. A self-taught artist.
   4. A work of art created by a primitive artist.
5. Linguistics.
   1. A word or word element from which another word is derived by morphological or historical processes or from which inflected forms are derived.
   2. A basic and indivisible unit of linguistic analysis. Also called prime.
6. Mathematics. An algebraic or geometric expression from which another expression is derived.
7. Computer Science. A basic or fundamental unit of machine instruction or translation.

[Middle English, from Old French primitif, primitive, from Latin prīmitīvus, from prīmitus, at first, from prīmus, first.]

primitively prim'i·tive·ly adv.
primitiveness prim'i·tive·ness or prim'i·tiv'i·ty n.

(1) In computer graphics, a graphics element that is used as a building block for creating images, such as a point, line, arc, cone or sphere.

(2) In programming, a fundamental instruction, statement or operation. See machine instruction.

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adjective

1. Not derived from something else: original, primary, prime. See start/end.
2. Of or being an irreducible element: basic, elemental, elementary, essential, fundamental, ultimate, underlying. See surface/depth.
3. Of, existing, or occurring in a distant period: ancient, antediluvian, early. See start/end.
4. Exhibiting lack of education or knowledge: backward, benighted, ignorant, unenlightened. See knowledge/ignorance.
5. Lacking expert, careful craftsmanship: crude, raw, rough, rude, unpolished. See good/bad.
6. Of or relating to early stages in the evolution of human culture: primeval. See start/end.
7. Not civilized: barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, rude, savage, uncivilized, uncultivated, uncultured, wild. Archaic uncivil. See culture/nature, wild/tame.

adj

Definition: ancient, original
Antonyms: current, modern, new, present, recent

adj

Definition: barbaric, crude
Antonyms: civilized, cultured, modern, sophisticated

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Type of architecture mnemonic of the very beginning, the earliest, original, crude, or fundamental. Suggested by roughness and squatness (as in the primitive Doric from Paestum with its exaggerated entasis), it was a feature of advanced late-C18 Neo-Classicism.

Bibliography

• J.Curl (1992)
• Vidler (1990)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

The term "primitive" (sometimes "primeval" or "primal") is close to "archaic," but should be distinguished from the latter in that "primitive" refers not to origins but rather to an anthropological or historical description of cultural phenomena (myths, religions, legends) or modes of thinking that remain unconscious in modern, civilized humans.

Freud's interest in the primitive was manifested as early as "A Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1950c [1895]), where he cited Charles Darwin. Thereafter, this notion is always found at the interface between, on the one hand, Freud's preoccupation with biological evolution and phylogenesis and, on the other, his hypotheses on the formation of social groups, as presented in particular in Totem and Taboo (1912-1913a) and Moses and Monotheism (1939a [1934-1938]).

In Freud's hypothesis, as outlined in "On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love" (1912d), "primitive" people, although they too live in a civilization remote from archaic times, are the equivalent of the childhood of "civilized" people. Thus everything about them is relevant to the study of humanity as a whole. Among salient examples of Freud's use of the term in his work are references to primitive religions and primitive sexual rites of worship (letter to Wilhelm Fliess dated January 24, 1897) and to primitive languages in which, as in dreams, there is no such thing as negation or contradiction (1900a), or in which a word is even systematically used with opposite meanings to express ambivalence (1910e).

In fact, thought itself, at these primitive stages, possesses original characteristics—such as conceptions of death, mechanisms of projection, and sexualized thought—as are found in magical beliefs or animism (1912-1913a). Freud hypothesized that social organization is initially patriarchal (the primal horde), then matriarchal (the divinization of woman as mother and the grouping of brothers into totemic clans), and finally once again patriarchal and patrilineal, with a unique God replacing the primal father. This conception constitutes a model for viewing collective life in general in its different, ever unstable configurations. The notion of the primitive always appears at the boundaries of myth, legend, and history, which are characteristic of the primitive style of writing history (1909d).

The primal scene (when a child is first emotionally aware of his parents copulating) also condenses certain epistemological questions that can be raised about the primitive, particularly concerning the reality of what the small child has seen or heard in connection with the parents' sexual relations.

The notion of the primitive occupies a central place in Freud's thought. It is the equivalent, at the collective level, to the infantile at the individual level. This aspect of Freud's work provides the outlines for fruitful interaction between anthropology and psychoanalysis.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1950c [1895]). A project for a scientific psychology. SE, 1: 281-387.

——. (1900a). The interpretation of dreams. SE, 4: 1-338; 5: 339-625.

——. (1909d). Notes upon a case of obsessional neurosis. SE, 10: 151-318.

——. (1910e). The antithetical meaning of primal words. SE, 11: 153-161.

——. (1912d). On the universal tendency to debasement in the sphere of love. SE, 11: 177-190.

——. (1912-1913a). Totem and taboo. SE, 13: 1-161.

——. (1939a [1934-1938]). Moses and monotheism: Three essays. SE, 23: 1-137.

——. (1985). The complete letters of Sigmund Freud toWilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904 (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

—SOPHIEDE MIJOLLA-MELLOR

First in point of time; existing in a simple or early form; showing little evolution.

• p. groove — longitudinal furrow in the primitive streak of the embryo.
• p. knot — see hensen's node.
• p. node — enlarged cranial end of the primitive streak.
• p. streak — the thickened median area of the epiblast which sets out the future longitudinal axis of the early embryo.

IN BRIEF: Of or living in earliest times. Also: Crude or simple.

Worldwide, there are about 3,400 members of this very ancient plant group, which exhibit primitive characteristics. — Diane E. Bilderback

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Common misspelling(s) of primitive

• primative

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - primitiv, ur-
n. - urmenneske

Nederlands (Dutch)
primitief, oorspronkelijk, eenvoudig, primitief iets/ iemand, bepaalde kunststijl

Français (French)
adj. - primitif
n. - (Art) primitif, (Anthrop) primitif

Deutsch (German)
adj. - primitiv
n. - Primitiver, Maler der Zeit vor der Renaissance, Stammwort

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - πρωτόγονος
n. - πρωτόγονος (άνθρωπος κ.λπ.), πριμιτίφ

Italiano (Italian)
primitivo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - primitivo, simplista, atrasado
n. - primitivo (m)

Русский (Russian)
примитивный, примитив

Español (Spanish)
adj. - primitivo, primario, rudimentario
n. - primitivo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - ursprunglig, primitiv, enkel, stam-, rot- (språkv.)
n. - urinnevånare, grundord (språkv.), primitiv konstutövare

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
原始的, 旧式的, 上古的, 原始人, 早期艺术家

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 原始的, 舊式的, 上古的
n. - 原始人, 早期藝術家

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 원시의, 원시시대의
n. - 원시인, 소박한 사람

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 原始の, 初期の, 太古の, 原始的な, 未開文化の, 根本の, 一次の
n. - 原始人, 素朴な人, 原線, 原始関数

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) أصلي, أولي, قديم (الاسم) من صنع فنان درس, الفن على نفسه, شيء بدائي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮פרימיטיבי, מיושן, פשוט, גס, קמאי, ראשיתי, קדמון‬
n. - ‮צייר מהתקופה שלפני הרנסנס, צייר המצייר בסגנון ישיר ותמים, תמונה המצוירת בסגנון פשוט, קו או מילה פשוטים‬

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primitive	primitive tin