primitive (redirected from primitiveness)

primitive

(1) In computer graphics, a graphics element that is used as a building block for creating images, such as a point, line, arc, cone or sphere.

(2) In programming, a fundamental instruction, statement or operation. See machine instruction.

(3) In microprogramming, a microinstruction, or elementary machine operation. See microcode.

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primitive

1. Anthropol denoting or relating to a preliterate and nonindustrial social system

2. Biology

a. of, relating to, or resembling an early stage in the evolutionary development of a particular group of organisms

b. another word for primordial

3. showing the characteristics of primitive painters; untrained, childlike, or naive

4. Geology pertaining to magmas that have experienced only small degrees of fractional crystallization or crystal contamination

5. Obsolete of, relating to, or denoting rocks formed in or before the Palaeozoic era

6. Protestant theol of, relating to, or associated with a minority group that breaks away from a sect, denomination, or Church in order to return to what is regarded as the original simplicity of the Gospels

7. 

a. an artist whose work does not conform to traditional, academic, or avant-garde standards of Western painting, such as a painter from an African or Oceanic civilization

b. a painter of the pre-Renaissance era in European painting

c. a painter of any era whose work appears childlike or untrained

8. a work by such an artist

9. Maths a curve, function, or other form from which another is derived

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(programming)

primitive - A function, operator, or type which is built into a programming language (or operating system), either for speed of execution or because it would be impossible to write it in the language. Primitives typically include the arithmetic and logical operations (plus, minus, and, or, etc.) and are implemented by a small number of machine language instructions.