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.
Synonyms of primordial
Examples of primordial in a Sentence
Literary Hub, 10 Feb. 2026
One gets the sense of a man perpetually drawn to the edge of the unknown, as the boy to the edge of the sea—to questions about our primordial origins, about the etiology and eschatology of our planet, about what erodes and what endures.
—Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
The galaxy also appears to have cleared its surrounding region of primordial hydrogen gas — an unexpected finding, the researchers say, given that the early universe was filled with neutral hydrogen.
—Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 4 Feb. 2026
Land is a primal word, primordial even, like lava.
—Tommy Orange, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Primordial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/primordial. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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primordial
adjective
