Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Belonging to the first or earliest age or ages; original or ancient: a primeval forest.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or belonging to the first ages; original; primal; primitive.
- Synonyms Primitive, etc. See primary.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Belonging to the first ages; pristine; original; primitive; primary.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state
Etymologies
- From Latin prīmaevus, early in life : prīmus, first; see per1 in Indo-European roots + aevum, age; see aiw- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Herbert urged that he must at least admit that there was a freshness of legend and poetry in what we call the primeval peoples that is wanting now; the mythic period is gone, at any rate.”
“There might have been more heroic characters at the siege of Troy than Abraham Lincoln, but there was not one more strongly marked individually; not one his superior in what we call primeval craft and humor.”
“Martian civilization had burrowed underground at some point in primeval history, after the oceans, lakes, and rivers had dried up.”
“March 26, 2009 at 5: 16 am primeval is the best and the the animals are the best”
“Instead of the prime vegetables more fittingly described by the word primeval, artfully displayed in the window for the delectation of the military man and his fellow country-woman the nursemaid, honest”
“Instead of the prime vegetables more fittingly described by the word primeval, artfully displayed in the window for the delectation of the military man and his fellow country-woman the nursemaid, honest Flicoteaux exhibited full salad-bowls adorned with many a rivet, or pyramids of stewed prunes to rejoice the sight of the customer, and assure him that the word”
“The patio of his hotel room opened onto an immaculate, dew-fresh lawn, shaded by massive mango and apple trees, that descended gently to the edge of what can only be described as a primeval forest.”
“First, that in this great continent of Africa, with its ancient civilisations which some of us ought to be able to appreciate more than we have done in the past, we are not dealing with what may be called a primeval state of affairs.”
STATEMENT IN THE SPECIAL POLITICAL COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
“It lay between him and what he called the "first heavy growth;" that is, the primeval forest, unthinned by axe of man, which at certain points clothes the foot of”
“It is something to secure to the student or the clerk the strong muscles, hearty appetite, and sound sleep of the sailor and the ploughman, -- to enable him, if need be, to out-row the fisherman, and out-run the mountaineer, and lift more than his porter, and to remember head-ache and dyspepsia only as he recalls the primeval whooping-cough of his childhood.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘primeval’.
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Prime Time
largest known prime, even prime, semiprime, dihedral prime, dihedral calculat..., double Mersenne p..., Eisenstein prime, emirp, Genocchi number p..., good prime, happy prime, highly cototient ... and 127 more...
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Originventory
Beformitables; previousness, past-referents, and origins.
erstwhile, formication, quondam, atavistic, umquhile, yestreen, hesternal, hesternopothia, pridian, ere, retrophilia, ante mortem and 72 more...
pikachu The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove! was in my nostrils, the high stillness of the primeval forest was before my eyes.
--Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad Mar 8, 2011