Primordial

How to spell primordial

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce primordial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does primordial mean?

1. adjectiveBelonging to or existing from the earliest stage of the world or of life; primeval and original.

Primordial in a sentence

• The documentary traced complex cells back to a primordial ocean rich in chemicals.

• Geologists study primordial rock formed when the planet was still cooling.

Where does primordial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin primordialis, meaning 'first of all' or 'original', which was built on the noun primordium, literally 'the very first beginning'. That noun in turn joined primus, meaning 'first', with the verb ordiri, meaning 'to begin' or 'to weave the start of something', so the underlying image is of the earliest thread laid down. English took the word in during the 1300s, at first in religious and philosophical writing about the origin of creation, before it broadened into the modern sense of something belonging to the earliest stage of the world or of life. The same primus that opens the word also sits behind familiar relatives such as 'prime', 'primary', and 'primitive', which is a useful reminder that primordial starts with prim, not prem. The trap in spelling is the unstressed middle, where the 'or' of ordiri can blur into a vague schwa, so picturing 'prim' plus 'order' helps lock in the central letters.

How the word is built

• prim- (from primus: first)
• ordi- (from ordiri: to begin)
• -al (adjective suffix)