[n] a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"
[n] a mathematical expression from which another expression is derived
[n] a person who belongs to early stage of civilization
[adj] (anthropology; of societies) preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial; "primitive societies"
[adj] little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type; "archaic forms of life"; "primitive mammals"; "the okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe"
[adj] belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness; "the crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man"; "primitive movies of the 1890s"; "primitive living conditions in the Appalachian mountains"
[adj] (fine arts) of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style; "primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking"