Primary
''primordial'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260727004347-00-⌔
primordial - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Adjective
primordial (not comparable)
- First, earliest or original.
- (biology) Characteristic of the earliest stage of the development of an organism, or relating to a primordium.
- ✤ a primordial leaf; a primordial cell
- Primeval.
- Of an element or isotope: occurring primordially (on Earth) (i.e. inherited from when the Earth was formed); because it is stable, or radioactive but so long-lived that some is left over from when the Earth was formed. For example, primordial radioisotopes (T = half-life in years) include uranium -235 (T = 7×10), potassium -40 (T = 1.25×10), uranium-238 (T = 4.5×10), and thorium -232 (T = 1.4×10).
Noun
primordial (plural primordials)
- A first principle or element.
- A primordial condition or state.
- ✤ With a horrified shriek she tore herself from Tarzan’s arms, and the ape-man turned just in time to ward with his arm a terrific blow that De Coude had aimed at his head. Once, twice, three times the heavy stick fell with lightning rapidity, and each blow aided in the transition of the ape-man back to the primordial.3
Etymology
From the Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”). Compare primordium and -al.
Pronunciation
Printed 2026-07-27.
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Link to original Footnotes
a. 1857, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1859–1860, →OCLC: ↩
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 9: ↩
1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 45: ↩
Secondary
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