Definition of "primeval" [pri•me•val]

• Belonging to the first or earliest age or ages; original or ancient: a primeval forest. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Herbert urged that he must at least admit that there was a freshness of legend and poetry in what we call the primeval peoples that is wanting now; the mythic period is gone, at any rate."
• "There might have been more heroic characters at the siege of Troy than Abraham Lincoln, but there was not one more strongly marked individually; not one his superior in what we call primeval craft and humor."
• "Martian civilization had burrowed underground at some point in primeval history, after the oceans, lakes, and rivers had dried up."