Make Your Point: PRIMEVAL

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRIMEVAL

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce PRIMEVAL:

pry ME vull

connect this word to others:

I laugh when I hear the word primeval. It reminds me of this scene from the 1991 movie Beauty and the Beast:

Gaston: The whole town's talking about it. It's not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting IDEAS… and THINKING.

Belle: Gaston, you are positively primeval.

He's so unevolved, he belongs in the planet's earliest puddles of ooze, the kind from the Earth's first age.

Inside the word primeval, you can almost see the Latin words for "first" (primus) and "age" (aevum).

As we've explored before, that Latin aevum, meaning "an age, or a space of time," also gave us the words age, eternal, eternity, longevity, medieval, c_eva_ ("existing together in the same time period"), and s___iter__l ("constant or lasting forever").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

With Latin bits that mean "belonging to the first age," the word "primeval" describes things that seem incredibly old and outdated, as if they belong to the very first human societies, or as if they belong to the time before humans evolved.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a primeval forest;" "The forest felt primeval."

Other forms:

The adverb is "primevally."

And if you need a noun, you can pick between "primevalism" and "primevalness."

how to use it:

Pick the common, scholarly-sounding word "primeval" when you want to compare people to cavemen, or when you want to imply that places feel ancient and untouched by modernity.

You could talk about primeval goo, slime, or ponds; about primeval ferns, trees, or beasts; or about primeval places, often forests and other wild areas.

Or, you might talk about primeval people and their primeval needs, urges, or emotions (like hunger, violence, fear, and rage). Even people's expectations and traditions can be called primeval—but it's pretty insulting to do so and might get you clubbed, speared, or axed.

examples:

"The East Coast Greenway begins in Calais, Maine, at the Canadian border... The route is stunning, passing through primeval forests and storybook villages; don't be surprised if you cover miles before you encounter another human."
— Melanie D.G. Kaplan, Washington Post, 4 May 2018

"At the end of each summer, hordes of people flock to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to erect a makeshift city the size of the Italian town of Pisa. They call it Black Rock City. A few days later, they will burn it to the ground, leaving no trace... Phenomena like Burning Man could confirm the view that the human need for ritual is primeval. It both predates and extends beyond organized religion."
— Dimitris Xygalatas, The Conversation, 9 September 2022

has this page helped you understand "primeval"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

study it:

Explain the meaning of "primeval" without saying "primordial" or "antediluvian."

try it out:

As Katy Waldman points out in Slate, popular novels for kids and teenagers tend to take kids and categorize them into tribes based on who they are. In Divergent, for example, kids join a faction for life based on their character, such as Dauntless or Erudite. And in Harry Potter, kids join a house for their whole academic career, such as Gryffindor if they're dauntless, or Ravenclaw if they're erudite.

"Likely as not," Waldman writes, "all of this essentialist categorization stirs some primeval memory in you, a fever dream of anxiety, confederacy, and Tater Tots."

In other words, these stories remind us of our earliest memories of grade school: our primeval days of deciding who we are and how we fit in.

In your opinion, is it fair to describe young people's urges to categorize themselves, and to fit in, as primeval? Why or why not?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is Subject Line Matching!

Try matching each capitalized term below with the email subject line that I used to introduce it. For an extra challenge, try recalling what each term means and how the subject line connects to it.

Try these today:

ASPERITY: _____________
DEMESNE: _____________
GRIMOIRE: _____________
PRATFALL: _____________
SCIENTER: _____________

grammar is clearly a Dark Art
it's a crack-up
resistance is feudal
this isn't pizza, this is a mistake
this time, not from Bob Loblaw's Law Blog

To see the correct answers, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. Opposites of PRIMEVAL include

A. KIND and ALTRUISTIC.
B. WISHY-WASHY and EUPHEMISTIC.
C. CONTEMPORARY and FUTURISTIC.

2. The narrator in Jacqueline Kelly's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate describes the sound of _____ as "primeval," _____.

A. a jar burping closed .. sending her into fits of laughter
B. her mother playing piano .. coaxing her into an easy sleep
C. her pet moth fluttering in his jar .. making the hairs on her arms stand up

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRIMEVAL Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRIMEVAL

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.