1. (a.) Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times\; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church.

2. (a.) of or pertaining to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity; as, a primitive style of dress.

3. (a.) Original; primary; radical; not derived; as, primitive verb in grammar.

4. (n.) An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative.

Bronze Age man Gothic Hominidae Iron Age man Neanderthal Stone Age man ab ovo abecedarian aboriginal aborigine ancestral ancient animal antediluvian antenatal antepatriarchal anthropoid ape-man archaic atavistic autochthon autochthonous barbarian barbaric barbarous basal basic basilar beginning bestial brutal brutish budding bushman cave dweller caveman central childlike coarse cognate constituent constitutive creative crucial crude derivation derivative doublet earliest earliest inhabitant early elemental elementary embryonic endemic eponym erstwhile essential etymon fetal first first comer fore formative former fossil man foundational fundamental generative genetic germinal gestatory gut homebred homegrown hominid humanoid ill-bred immemorial impolite in embryo in its infancy in ovo in the bud inaugural inceptive inchoate inchoative incipient incunabular indigene indigenous infant infantile initial initiative initiatory introductory inventive late local local yokel man of old material missing link naive nascent natal native native-born noncivilized of the essence old olden once onetime original outlandish parturient past patriarchal persistent postnatal preadamite preglacial pregnant prehistoric prehistoric man prehuman prenatal previous primal primary primate prime primeval primitive settler primogenial primoprimitive primordial prior pristine procreative protogenic protohistoric protohuman quondam radical raw recent root rough rough-and-ready rude rudimental rudimentary savage seminal simple simplistic sometime substantial substantive then troglodyte troglodytic uncivil uncivilized uncombed uncouth uncultivated uncultured underived underlying undeveloped unkempt unlicked unpolished unrefined unschooled unsophisticated untamed untaught untrained untutored ur vernacular wild