primeval

• primaeval, primæval

From primevous +‎ -al. Further, primevous, from Latin primaevus (“in the first or earliest period of life”), from primus (“first”) + aevum (“time, age”); see prime and age.

• enPR: "prīm'ēvəl, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪˌmi.vəl/

primeval (comparative more primeval, superlative most primeval)

1. belonging to the first ages
2. primary; original
   • 1827 July, “Asiatic Society of Calcutta”, in The Oriental Herald, and Journal of General Literature, volume XIV, number 43, London: Printed for the editor, and sold by all booksellers [printed by J. R. Gordon, 147, Strand, OCLC 40958619, page 147:

     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.

3. primitive

• primeval in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• primeval in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911