See Also: dittander(medicine)
dittander(dictionary)

primitive (iou) and dittander (iou)


primitive (iou)



primitive adjective & noun. LME.
[Old & mod. French primitif, -ive or Latin primitivus first or earliest of its kind, from primitus in the first place, from PRIMUS adjective: see -IVE.]
A. adjective.
I.
Original, not derivative; not developed or derived from any Other thing; from which another thing develops or is derived. LME.
G. Grote The primitive ancestor of the Trojan line of kings is Dardanus.
Of or pertaining to the first age, period, or stage; early, ancient. LME.
R. H. Tawney The aim of religious leaders was to reconstruct..the forgotten purity of primitive Christianity.
Having a quality or style associated with an early or ancient period or stage; old-fashioned; simple, unsophisticated; undeveloped, crude. L17.
P. Dickinson The heavy..gear felt primitive and inefficient.
II. spec.
Of a word, base, or root, or of a language: radical; not derived; from which another word, base, or root, or language develops or is derived. M16.
Math.
a. Of an algebraic or geometric expression: from which another is derived, or which is not itself derived from another. L17.
b. Of a root of an integer n: such that the least power to which the root can be raised to yield unity modulo n is the totient of n. M19.
c. Of a substitution group: having letters which cannot be partitioned into disjoint proper subsets in a way that is preserved by every element of the group. L19.
d. Of an nth root of unity: having the nth power, but no lower power, equal to unity. E20.
Geology. Of a rock or formation: believed to belong to the earliest geological period. Cf. PRIMARY adjective 4. L18.
Crystallography. Of, pertaining to, or designating a fundamental crystalline form from which all Other forms may be derived by geometrical processes; of the form obtained by cleavage. E19.
Biology.
a. Of a part or structure: in the first or early stage of formation or growth; rudimentary, primordial. M19.
b. Of, pertaining to, or designating the minute or ultimate elements of a structure. M19.
c. Of an anatomical structure: from which secondary structures arise by branching, as in a blood-vessel. M19.
Pertaining to or designating pre-Renaissance western European Art. Also, (of Art etc.) simple or straightforward in style, eschewing subtlety or conventional technique; suggesting the artist's lack or rejection of formal Training (cf. NA?F adjective 1b, NAIVE adjective 1b). M19.
Anthropology. Belonging or pertaining to a culture characterized by isolation, low technology, and simple social and economic organization. E20.
Of behaviour, thought, emotion, etc.: originating in unconscious needs or desires, and unaffected by objective reasoning. E20.
D. Bagley He could not control the primitive reaction of his body.
Logic. (Of a concept) not defined in terms of any Other concept; (of a proposition) not based on inference from any Other proposition. E20.
Special collocations: primitive accumulation Economics in Marxist theory, the posited original accumulation of capital by expropriation of small producers, from which capitalist production was able to start; primitive socialist accumulation, the accumulation of capital by expropriation of small producers thought to be needed to start socialist production. Primitive Baptist US a member of an association of conservative Baptists, formed by secession from the Baptist Church. primitive cell Crystallography the smallest unit cell of a lattice, having lattice points at each of its eight vertices only. Primitive Church the Christian Church in its earliest and (supposedly) purest era. primitive circle Math. & Crystallography the circle on which a projection is made. primitive colour = primary colour s.v. COLOUR noun. primitive GERMANIC. primitive groove Embryology (a) = primitive streak below; (b) a groove or furrow which appears in the upper surface of the primitive streak, marking the beginning of the vertebral column. primitive lattice Crystallography a lattice generated by the repeated translation of a primitive cell. Primitive Methodist Hist. a member or adherent of a society of Methodists founded in 1810 by Hugh Bourne by secession from the main body, reunited with the Methodist Church in 1932. primitive plane Math. & Crystallography the plane on which a projection is made. primitive streak, primitive trace Embryology the faint streak which is the earliest trace of the embryo in the fertilized ovum of a higher vertebrate.
b. noun.
I. An original ancestor or progenitor. Also (rare), a first-born child. LME-L17.
a. An early Christian; a member of the primitive Church. M16-L17.
b. An original inhabitant, an aboriginal; a person of primitive (esp. prehistoric) times; transf. an uncivilized, uncultured person. L18.
= Primitive Methodist above. M19.
Art.
a. A pre-Renaissance painter; a modern painter who imitates pre-Renaissance style. Also, an artist employing a primitive or naive style. L19.
b. A work of Art, esp. a painting, by a primitive artist. L19.
II.
a. A word, base, or root from which another develops or is derived; a root-word. Opp. derivative. LME.
b. = PHONETIC noun 1. E19.
Math. An algebraic or geometric expression from which another is derived; a function which satisfies a differential equation; a curve of which another is the polar, reciprocal, etc. L19.
Logic. A primitive concept or proposition. M20.
Computing. A simple operation or procedure, esp. one of a limited set from which complex operations or procedures may be constructed; spec. a simple geometric shape which may be generated in computer Graphics by such an operation or procedure. Cf. sense A.5a above. M20.
primitively adverb L16.
primitiveness noun M17.
primitivism noun (a) primitive belief, thought, or behaviour; (b) preference for, or idealization or practice of, what is simple, unsophisticated, or primitive (in society, Art, etc.): M19.
primitivist noun & adjective (a) noun a person who advocates or practises primitivism; a person who uses obsolete methods or techniques; (b) adjective of or pertaining to primitivists, primitivism, or what is primitive: E20.
primiti'vistic adjective = primitivist adjective M20.
primi'tivity noun primitiveness M18.
primitivi'zation noun the action or process of primitivizing M20.
primitivize verb trans. & intrans. make primitive; simplify; return to an earlier stage: M20.

dittander (iou)



dittander noun. ME.
[formed as DITTANY, with ending perh. after Old & mod. French coriandre CORIANDER.]
Pepperwort, Lepidium latifolium. ME.
= DITTANY 1. E-M17.