Primitive means belonging to an early and undeveloped stage. Primitive tools, a primitive design, primitive conditions.
Applied to peoples or cultures it is offensive and no longer used in anthropology, because no living culture is earlier than any other. Of tools and machines it is neutral and simply means simple. In computing, a primitive is a basic building block.
1adjectiveprimitiveBelonging to an early and undeveloped stage.
“The first computers were primitive machines that filled a whole room.”
primitive is a quality of development.
Latin primitivus means first of its kind, from primus, first. Prime and primary are relatives.
Latin
prīmitīvus — first or earliest of its kind
Old French
primitif
Middle English
primitif
English, today
primitive
Built from
From Middle English primitif, from Old French primitif, from Latin prīmitīvus (“first or earliest of its kind”), from prīmus (“first”); see prime. a doublet of primitivo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA