primeval
prye-MEE-vuladjMeaning belonging to the earliest ages of the world
Memory hook PRIM-EVAL: the very FIRST AGE. Deep in the jungle, Sami finds a valley where giant plants tower overhead and a dragon-sized lizard dozes, as if the world’s first age had never ended; the place is primeval.
The explorers hiked through a primeval forest of giant ferns and moss-covered trees.
In context The cave paintings date from a primeval time, thousands of years before anyone had built a city or written a single word.
Similar ancient, primordial, prehistoric, primal
Opposite modern, recent
From Latin primaevus, “in the first age”: primus (first) + aevum (age).