primordialis

Forms

prīmōrdiālis (neuter prīmōrdiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prīmōrdium + -ālis, an adjective to the noun meaning “beginning, origin”.^[1][2][3] That noun is itself made from prīmus (“first”) and the stem of ordior (“to begin”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is Christian in origin: the TLL finds it from Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) on,^[2][5] who calls the law given to Adam and Eve the “primordial law”, the womb, as it were, of all God's commandments.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Christian writers it described what belonged to the beginning of the world and of mankind, such as the first sin or the first darkness and chaos of Genesis.^[2] It was also said of the begetting of the Son of God before all ages, and of anything from which other things take their origin.^[2] Outside Christian authors the TLL records it only in Ammianus Marcellinus and Martianus Capella.^[2] A post-classical adverb prīmōrdiāliter meant “from the beginning, originally”.^[3]

Medieval Latin kept the senses “primordial, primitive”,^[6] and English took the word over in the late 14th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian speaks of a “primordial law” given to Adam and Eve.^[2][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of a first cause.^[3][2][5]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it.^[2][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as primordial.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Belonging to the very beginning, first of all, original, primordial.^[3][7][2]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Of the beginning of the world or of mankind.^[2]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Of the Son of God, begotten before all ages.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) Primitive, primeval.^[6]

Related words

• English primordial

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson