elementary

Etymology

From Latin elementārius (“elementary”), from elementum (“one of the four elements of antiquity; fundamentals”) + -ārius (adjective-forming suffix). Cognate with French élémentaire.

adj

1. Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
2. Relating to an elementary school.
3. (physics) Relating to a subatomic particle.
   The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier. 2012-03, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146
4. (archaic) Sublunary; not celestial; belonging to the sublunary sphere, to which the four classical elements (earth, air, fire and water) were confined; composed of or pertaining to these four elements.

noun

1. An elementary school.
   At Lakeside Elementary I learned to appreciate the forest.
2. (mythology, mysticism) A supernatural being associated with the elements.
   The demon (or elementary) of the South-West wind was particularly dreaded, as being the gini of fever and madness. 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 45
   […] the spiritual man is either translated like Enoch and Elias to the higher state, or falls down lower than an elementary again […] 2003, H P Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, volume 1
   But, in Africa these became definite in their Egyptian Types, by means of which we can follow their development from the elementaries of Chaos and Space into Celestial Intelligencers […] 2007, Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, page 332