Main entry: primitive
Definition: a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms
Usage: `pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived
Main entry: primitive
Definition: a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived
Main entry: primitive, primitive person
Definition: a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization
Main entry: primitive
Definition: used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies
Usage: primitive societies
Main entry: primitive, archaic
Definition: little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
Usage: archaic forms of life; primitive mammals; the okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe
Main entry: primitive, rude, crude
Definition: belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness
Usage: the crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man; primitive movies of the 1890s; primitive living conditions in the Appalachian mountains
Definition: of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style
Usage: primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking