primal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pri=mal

CIDE DICTIONARY

primal, a. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.].

 First; primary; original; chief.  [1913 Webster]
"It hath the primal eldest curse upon it."  [1913 Webster]
"The primal duties shine aloft like stars."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

primal, adj.
1 primitive, primeval.
2 chief, fundamental.

Derivative

primally adv.

Etymology

med.L primalis f. L primus first

THESAURUS

primal

ab ovo, abecedarian, aboriginal, antenatal, arch, atavistic, austere, autochthonous, banner, bare, basal, basic, basilar, beginning, bodily, born, budding, capital, cardinal, central, champion, chaste, chief, coeval, congenital, connatal, connate, connatural, constituent, constitutional, constitutive, creative, crowning, crucial, dominant, elemental, elementary, embryonic, essential, fetal, first, focal, foremost, formative, foundational, fundamental, generative, genetic, germinal, gestatory, great, gut, headmost, hegemonic, hereditary, homely, homespun, homogeneous, in embryo, in its infancy, in ovo, in the blood, in the bud, inaugural, inborn, inbred, incarnate, inceptive, inchoate, inchoative, incipient, incunabular, indigenous, indivisible, infant, infantile, inherited, initial, initiative, initiatory, innate, instinctive, instinctual, introductory, inventive, irreducible, leading, magisterial, main, master, material, mere, monolithic, nascent, natal, native, native to, natural, natural to, of a piece, of the essence, organic, original, overruling, paramount, parturient, physical, plain, postnatal, predominant, preeminent, pregnant, prenatal, preponderant, prevailing, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primogenial, primordial, principal, pristine, procreative, protogenic, pure, pure and simple, radical, ranking, rudimental, rudimentary, ruling, seminal, severe, simon-pure, simple, single, sovereign, spare, star, stark, stellar, substantial, substantive, supereminent, temperamental, topflight, unadorned, uncluttered, underlying, undifferenced, undifferentiated, uniform, ur