primal

[ prahy-muhl ]

adjective

1. first; original; primeval:

   primal eras before the appearance of life on earth.

2. of first importance; fundamental:

   the primal resources of a nation.

primal

/ ˈpraɪməl /

adjective

1. first or original
2. chief or most important

Other Words From

• non·primal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of primal¹

From the Medieval Latin word prīmālis, dating back to 1535–45. See prime, -al ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of primal¹

C17: from Medieval Latin prīmālis, from Latin prīmus first

Example Sentences

It’s the primal wanting and need of drama, I feel like, as humans.

From Washington Post

He is of primal, protean, raw voice on the Harlem Square Club version of “Chain Gang,” but we experience that idea again of someone writing to reach us.

From The Daily Beast

For all of our 21st-century trappings, our human paths align across the millennia, and we all carry the primal memories of skin contact with the earth and each other.

From Time

We ditch the pretense of our urban lives and become some sort of primal survivor.

From The Daily Beast

Sitwell’s intense reaction to the fictional retelling of his primal loss reminds readers that history belongs to those who control its narrative, and that fiction can be as powerful, and in some cases even more influential, than fact.

From Washington Post

And to this day, liberals in the political world use the name “Willie Horton” to describe an appeal to primal racial fears.

From The Daily Beast

Levine broods in the meat locker, mad with desire for Prinsloo, whose appetite for him is equally primal.

From The Daily Beast

I wanted to fill her with pain and primal rage, which was really fun for me.

From The Daily Beast

Because primal violence is justified by religious belief, “the offenders have no remorse, no fear, and are extremely confident.”

From The Daily Beast

The “exotic” foreign civilization is somehow more natural, more primal, more sensual, the way people really ought to live.

From The Daily Beast

The poverty of earlier days was the outcome of the insufficiency of human labor to meet the primal needs of human kind.

From Project Gutenberg

The primal rigidity of the straight line yields later on to the freedom of an organ.

From Project Gutenberg

From that day to this, man has been occupied in unfolding this method, and has advanced enormously beyond his primal state.

From Project Gutenberg

Anaximenes, seeing that animals die without air, thought that air was the great primal cause.

From Project Gutenberg

Whatever you said to him sank without splash into this almost primal calm and was lost to your view forever.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• primordial