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a plurality of gods. In the Old Testament, the gradual development of polytheism from the primitive monotheism may be learned. Shaff-Herzog.

First in order of time or development or in intention; primitive; fundamental; original. The church of Christ, in its primary institution. Bp. Pearson. These I call original, or primary, qualities of body. Locke.

First in order of time; original; primeval; primitive; primary. "Prime forests." Tennyson. She was not the prime cause, but I myself. Milton.

Belonging to the first ages; pristine; original; primitive; primary; as, the primeval innocence of man. "This is the forest primeval." Longfellow. From chaos, and primeval darkness, came Light. Keats.

Being of the first production; primitive; original. [Obs.] Ainsworth.

Quality of being first; primitiveness. [Obs.] Bp. Pearson.

Pristine; primitive. [Obs.] "Pristinate idolatry." Holinshed.

Belonging to the earliest period or state; original; primitive; primeval; as, the pristine state of innocence; the pristine manners of a people; pristine vigor.

x signifying first, primary, primordial; as, protomartyr, the first martyr; protomorphic, primitive in form; protoplast, a primordial organism; prototype, protozoan.

Having the most primitive character; in the earliest form; as, a protomorphic layer of tissue. H. Spencer.

One of the primitive segments, or metameres, of an animal.

One of the primitive masses, or segments, into which the mesoblast of the vertebrate embryo breaks up on either side of the anterior part of the notochord; a mesoblastic, or protovertebral, somite. See Illust. of Ectoderm.

A primitive word; a radix, root, or simple, underived, uncompounded word; an etymon.

Without derivation; primitively; essentially. [R.] These great orbs thus radically bright. Prior.

A primitive, from which spring other words; a radical; a root; an etymon.

Characterized by violence and passion; unruly; rampant. [Prov. or Low] In the primitive ages of a rampageous antiquity. Galt.

One of the Primitive Methodists, who seceded from the Wesleyan Methodists on the ground of their deficiency in fervor and zeal; -- so called in contempt.

rizon at right angles; in spherical projections, that position of the sphere in which the primitive plane coincides with the plane of the equator.

A primitive form of speech; one of the earliest terms employed in language; a word from which other words are formed; a radix, or radical.

classical and modern, and by its more perfect preservation of the roots and forms of the primitive language from which they are all descended, is a most important assistance in determining their history and relations. Cf. Prakrit, and Veda.