時間上的最初
這一族直接用畫面本身：講的就是時間線最前面那一段，或是從那裡一路留到今天沒被動過的東西。
adjective · C1
Belonging to the very first ages of the universe or of the Earth — the time long before there were any people, and in many uses before there was any life at all.
太初的、天地初開的
核心畫面
Take the timeline of everything and put your finger at the very start of it — before people, before life, when the universe was only gas. Primeval points at that spot. Everything else the word does is a way of saying: this thing reaches back to there.
可以想成把整條時間線攤開來，然後把手指按在最前面那一點：人還沒出現，生命也還沒出現，宇宙只是一團氣體。primeva…更多收起
可以想成把整條時間線攤開來，然後把手指按在最前面那一點：人還沒出現，生命也還沒出現，宇宙只是一團氣體。primeval 指的就是那個位置。這個字的其他用法，都可以想成在說同一句話——「這東西一路連回那裡」。連回去的東西可以是一片沒人動過的老森林，可以是人身上比思考更早的那一層本能，也可以是（誇張地說）辦公室那台老到不行的機器。字裡面的拉丁文 primus（第一）加 aevum（時代），一直在這個畫面裡。From the word’s history
Wiktionary gives Latin primaevus, from primus (first) and aevum (age, time), plus -al: literally in the first age. That is the core image almost word for word.
Wiktionary 記載它來自拉丁文 primaevus，由 primus（第一）和 aevum（時代、年歲）組成，字面就是「處在第一個時代的」。核心畫面幾乎就是字面本身，所以這個字的每一個用法，都還踩在「最初」這兩個字上。
Wiktionary entry supplied in evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:657257559:17552): from Latin primaevus + -al, from primus + aevum.
Three branches
人身上最早的那一層
把「最初」從世界搬到人身上：不是說這個人很老，而是說這份反應來自比思考更早的那一層。
adjective · C1
A primeval feeling is very strong and arrives before you have thought about anything, as if it came from a deep, very old, animal part of a person rather than from the mind.
原始本能的
誇張地說：舊得像上個時代
把時間線整個拉過頭：東西其實只是舊，說話的人卻講得像它是從第一個時代留下來的，笑點和火氣都在這個落差裡。
adjective · C1
So basic, so old-fashioned, or in such poor condition that it seems to belong to a much earlier age — used to complain about something, and often said as a joke.
老舊簡陋到像上個時代
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
primevaladj/pɹaɪ̯ˈmiː.vəl/
- 1
Belonging to the first ages.
- a primeval galaxy
- And Tarzan had to be contented with that arrangement, though he would have liked it well enough to have set off the next morning—he was as impatient as a child. Really Tarzan of the Apes was but a child, or a primeval man, which is the same thing in a way.
- 2
Primary; original.
- A letter from Mr. [Brian Houghton] Hodgson to Mr. Bayley, was then read, giving an outline of the theocracy of the Buddha system of Nepal. […] According to the information now communicated, the northern Buddhas acknowledge four sets of divine beings, or of superhuman objects of veneration. The first of these is, contrary to the generally supposed atheistical tendency of the faith, one primæval and uncreated deity. This first Buddha manifested five of his attributes, as five secondary Buddhas; in one of whom, Amitabha, or the 'immeasurably splendid,' in Prakrit and Pali, Amitabo, we recognise the Amito of the Japanese.
- But if life has a happiness over which the primeval curse has passed and harmed not, it is the early and long enduring affection of blood and habit.
- 3
Primitive.
- If their views were entrancing their sanitation was primeval; if they possessed stables they were also next to the gas-works; if their gardens were delightful there were odours suspicious of mice in the bedrooms.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。