primordial

Etymology

From the Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”). Compare primordium and -al.

adj

1. first, earliest or original
   As an archetypal image of primordial unity, the cosmic egg suggests that there is unity and fragmentation, eternity and time. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 9
2. (biology) characteristic of the earliest stage of the development of an organism, or relating to a primordium
   a primordial leaf; a primordial cell
3. primeval
4. Of an element or isotope: occurring primordially (on Earth) (i.e. inherited from when the Earth was formed); because it is stable, or radioactive but so long-lived that some is left over from when the Earth was formed. For example, primordial radioisotopes (T = half-life) include uranium-235 (T = 7×10⁸ years), potassium-40 (T = 1.25×10⁹ years), uranium-238 (T = 4.5×10⁹ years), and thorium-235 (T = 1.4×10¹⁰ years).

noun

1. A first principle or element.