primordial

From the Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”). Compare primordium and -al.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɹaɪˈmɔː.di.əl/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /pɹaɪˈmɔɹ.di.əl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pɹɑɪˈmoː.di.əl/

primordial (not comparable)

1. First, earliest or original.
   • 1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     the primordial facts of our intelligent nature

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 9:

     As an archetypal image of primordial unity, the cosmic egg suggests that there is unity and fragmentation, eternity and time.

2. (biology) Characteristic of the earliest stage of the development of an organism, or relating to a primordium.

   a primordial leaf; a primordial cell

3. Primeval.
4. 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 = 7×10⁸), potassium-40 (T = 1.25×10⁹), uranium-238 (T = 4.5×10⁹), and thorium-232 (T = 1.4×10¹⁰).

primordial (plural primordials)

1. A first principle or element.
2. A primordial condition or state.
   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 45:

     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.

Learned borrowing from Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”).

• IPA^(key): /pʁi.mɔʁ.djal/

primordial (feminine primordiale, masculine plural primordiaux, feminine plural primordiales)

1. primordial, primitive, original

   Synonyms: originel, primitif

   soupe primordiale ― primordial soup

2. vital, essential, paramount, of paramount importance

   Synonyms: capital, essentiel

• primordialement

• “primordial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• Audio:

  (file)

primordial (strong nominative masculine singular primordialer, not comparable)

1. primordial

• “primordial” in Duden online
• “primordial” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Borrowed from Dutch primordiaal (“primordial”).

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /primorˈdial/ [pri.morˈdi.al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pri‧mor‧di‧al

primordial (comparative lebih primordial, superlative paling primordial)

1. primordial

• “primordial” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”).

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: pri‧mor‧di‧al

primordial m or f (plural primordiais)

1. primordial (first, earliest or original)

   Synonym: primeiro

2. primary, main, paramount

   Synonyms: capital, essencial, importante

   • 1982, Bernardo Soares, Livro do Desassossego, Vol.II:

     Em mim o que há de primordial é o hábito e o jeito de sonhar.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• primordialmente

• primórdio

• “primordial”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Borrowed from French primordial. By surface analysis, primordiu +‎ -al.

primordial m or n (feminine singular primordială, masculine plural primordiali, feminine and neuter plural primordiale)

1. primeval

• primordialitate

From Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”). Cognate with English primordial.

• IPA^(key): /pɾimoɾˈdjal/ [pɾi.moɾˈð̞jal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pri‧mor‧dial

primordial m or f (masculine and feminine plural primordiales)

1. primordial
2. primary, paramount

• “primordial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024