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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.

In a primeval manner; in or from the earliest times; originally. Darwin.

d; endowment; gift. How great, how plentiful, how rich a dower! Sir J. Davies. Man in his primeval dower arrayed. Wordsworth.

A primeval larval form; a double-walled sac from which, according to the hypothesis of Haeckel, man and all other animals, that in the first stages of their individual evolution pass through a two-layered structural stage, or gastrula form, must have descended. This idea constitutes the Gastræa theory of Haeckel. See G…

excellent; eminently auspicious; as, golden opinions. Golden age. (a) The fabulous age of primeval simplicity and purity of manners in rural employments, followed by the silver, bronze, and iron ages. Dryden. (b) (Roman Literature) The best part (B. C. 81 -- A. D. 14) of the classical period of Latinity; the time when…

es, a mythical king of ancient Attica, or to a great deluge in Attica in his days; hence, primeval; of obscure antiquity.

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

Primeval. [Obs.]

Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church. "Our primitive great sire." Milton.

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

The state of being savage; savageness; savagism. A like work of primeval savagery. C. Kingsley.

ven forward by something. The first nautilus that scudded upon the glassy surface of warm primeval oceans. I. Taylor. The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven. Beaconsfield.