primeval

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Belonging to the first ages.

   a primeval galaxy

2. 2
   adj

   Primary; original.

   A letter from Mr. [Brian Houghton] Hodgson to Mr. Bayley, was then read, giving an outline of the theocracy of the Buddha system of Nepal. […] According to the information now communicated, the northern Buddhas acknowledge four sets of divine beings, or of superhuman objects of veneration. The first of these is, contrary to the generally supposed atheistical tendency of the faith, one primæval and uncreated deity. This first Buddha manifested five of his attributes, as five secondary Buddhas; in one of whom, Amitabha, or the 'immeasurably splendid,' in Prakrit and Pali, Amitabo, we recognise the Amito of the Japanese.

3. 3
   adj

   Primitive.

   If their views were entrancing their sanitation was primeval; if they possessed stables they were also next to the gas-works; if their gardens were delightful there were odours suspicious of mice in the bedrooms.

4. 4
   adj

   having existed from the beginning

Etymology

From Latin primaevus (“in the first or earliest period of life”) + -al, from primus (“first”) + aevum (“time, age”); see prime and age.