PRIMITIVE

I. adjective see: prime Date: 14th century 1. not derived ; original , primary , assumed as a basis, 2. of or relating to the earliest age or period ; primeval , closely approximating an early ancestral type ; little evolved , belonging to or characteristic of an early stage of development ; crude , rudimentary , of, relating to, or constituting the assumed parent speech of related languages , 3. elemental , natural , of, relating to, or produced by a people or culture that is nonindustrial and often nonliterate and tribal , naive , d. self-taught , untutored , produced by a self-taught artist , ~ly adverb ~ness noun primitivity noun II. noun Date: 15th century 1. something ~, a root word, 2. a. an artist of an early period of a culture or artistic movement, a later imitator or follower of such an artist, b. a self-taught artist, an artist whose work is marked by directness and naïveté, a work of art produced by a ~ artist, a typically rough or simple usually handmade and antique home accessory or furnishing, 3. a member of a ~ people, an unsophisticated person