primitive
7
8.2
- noun
- /ˈprɪmətɪv/
- Archaic
:
primitivo
- The ancient drawings in the cave were created by primitives who had not yet formed complex societies.
All this is in fact beginning more and more to possess what the earnest psychologists fear the primitive sees in his environment.
- All this is in fact beginning more and more to possess what the earnest psychologists fear the primitive sees in his environment.
- He's a banker calls this in this book that was written around the Vietnam War era, the attack of the primitives.
Examples
-
"Listen," I said, "in the Philippines, scientists discovered an isolated tribe of primitives."
Fiction book (1997) -
And when you grew up, were there any primitives hanging in your home?
Fiction book (1996) -
They're primitives thousands of years behind us.
-
We are not primitives scouring in fear of the lightning bolt.
-
I've found the village site of a race of flint-using primitives who were used as slave labor.
Fiction book (1992) -
A Christian man in the West strove to escape this lingering illusion that the primitives had projected upon nature.
Academic text (1991) -
Like all primitives, he’s afraid of the unknown... afraid of what he can’t understand.
-
The museum displayed artifacts from primitives who lived thousands of years ago.
-
Researchers studied the tools used by early primitives to understand their daily lives.
Antonyms
89
3.7
Advanced in social, cultural and technological development with order and refinement
Compounds
- Slur
1
8.9
A person from an early stage of human society now seen as outdated and offensive
- Specialized
1
6.7
Work made by people without formal art training in a simple, direct style
- Specialized
Seeing someone as completely perfect and without faults to protect yourself emotionally
Surface Forms
Etymology
Primitive as a noun comes from primus 'first', so it originally meant a person from an early time or culture. That's why people used primitive for groups who lived before complex societies, though today calling people 'primitive' can sound rude.