primordial
adjective
Sir Winston Churchill
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The history of "primordial" began when the Latin words primus (meaning "first") and "ordiri" (meaning "to begin") came together to form "primordium," the Latin word for "origin." When it entered English in the 14th century, "primordial" was used in the general sense "primeval." Early on, there were hints that "primordial" would lend itself well to discussions of the earth's origins. Take, for instance, this passage from a 1398 translation of an encyclopedia called On the Properties of Things: "The virtu of God made primordial mater, in the whiche as it were in massy thinge the foure elementis were . . . nought distinguishd." Nowadays, primordial matter is often referred to in evolutionary theory as "primordial soup," a mixture of organic molecules from which life on earth originated.
Examples of primordial in a Sentence
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 29 Jan. 2025
Colossal has established a flock of Nicobar pigeons, the dodo’s closest living relative, which will act as donors for primordial germ cells that will be genetically edited to have dodo characteristics.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 16 Jan. 2025
In our own solar system, comets are among the most primordial material—leftovers from the protoplanetary disk.
—Elise Cutts, WIRED, 22 Dec. 2024
There is a primordial quality to the woods that oscillates between cacophonous forest chatter and eerie silence in the space of a ridge or two.
—Laura Lancaster, Outdoor Life, 2 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Primordial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/primordial. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
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primordial
adjective
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