primitive vs superficial

primitive

adj
  • Of or pertaining to or harking back to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity. 

  • Occurring in or characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution. 

  • Crude, obsolete. 

  • Not derived from another of the same type 

  • Original; primary; radical; not derived. 

  • Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first. 

noun
  • An original or primary word; a word not derived from another, as opposed to derivative. 

  • A simple-minded person. 

  • A data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures. 

  • A basic geometric shape from which more complex shapes can be constructed. 

  • Any of the simplest elements (instructions, statements, etc.) available in a programming language. 

  • A member of a primitive society. 

  • A function whose derivative is a given function; an antiderivative. 

superficial

adj
  • Lacking depth of character or understanding; lacking substance or significance. 

  • Not thorough, deep, or complete; concerned only with the obvious or apparent. 

  • Existing, occurring, or located on the surface. 

  • Appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely. 

  • Situated or occurring on the skin or immediately beneath it. 

  • Two-dimensional; drawn on a flat surface. 

  • Denoting a quantity of a material expressed in terms of area covered rather than linear dimension or volume. 

noun
  • A surface detail. 

How often have the words primitive and superficial occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )