Primal means belonging to the earliest and deepest instincts. A primal fear, a primal urge, a primal scream.
It suggests something older than reason — a primal fear of the dark, a primal instinct to protect a child. Primal scream therapy was a fashion of the 1970s and is now largely discredited, though the phrase survives. In technical use it simply means first or original. Note primeval, which means of the earliest ages of the world and is about time rather than instinct.
1adjectiveprimalBelonging to the earliest and deepest instincts.
“The baby's cry woke a primal urge in her to protect him.”
synonyms: primitive, instinctive
primal is a quality of being deepest.
Medieval Latin primalis comes from primus, first. Prime, primary, primitive and premier come from the same first.
Latin
prīmus — first
Medieval Latin
prīmālis
English, today
primal
Probably partly from Medieval Latin prīmālis, from Latin prīmus (“first”) + -ālis, and partly from prime + al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA