"primary world" meaning in All languages combined

See primary world on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: primary worlds [plural]
Etymology: Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1947 essay "On Fairy-Stories". Head templates: {{en-noun}} primary world (plural primary worlds)
  1. (fantasy) The real world of the reader or viewer, as opposed to the imaginary "secondary world" of a work of fiction. Wikipedia link: J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories Categories (topical): Fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Worldbuilding Related terms: low fantasy
    Sense id: en-primary_world-en-noun-YbglMSCQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: fantasy

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for primary world meaning in All languages combined (3.8kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "fantasy world"
    },
    {
      "word": "imaginary world"
    },
    {
      "word": "secondary world"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1947 essay \"On Fairy-Stories\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "primary worlds",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "primary world (plural primary worlds)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fantasy",
          "orig": "en:Fantasy",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Artistic works",
            "Genres",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
          "orig": "en:J. R. R. Tolkien",
          "parents": [
            "Authors",
            "British fiction",
            "Fantasy",
            "Individuals",
            "Literature",
            "People",
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Human",
            "Artistic works",
            "Genres",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Art",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Worldbuilding",
          "orig": "en:Worldbuilding",
          "parents": [
            "Narratology",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Drama",
            "Literature",
            "Fiction",
            "Genres",
            "Theater",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Artistic works",
            "Art",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1947, J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories”, in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, page 60",
          "text": "What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Frederick M. Burelbach, “An Introduction to Naming in the Literature of Fantasy”, in Literary Onomastics Studies, volume 9, number 11, page 132",
          "text": "Now, this secondary world can be made to stand entirely on its own, so that there is no primary world in the fiction and the only reference points to the real world are those the reader brings with him or forges for himself. This is generally the case with what is commonly called \"high\" fantasy, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Nikki Gamble, Sally Yates, “Fantasy and Realism”, in Exploring Children's Literature, page 120",
          "text": "Fantasy fiction has been categorized and described in different ways. One classification divides fantasy into two major types:¶ low fantasy, which takes place in the primary world (our world);¶ high fantasy, which takes place in alternative worlds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The real world of the reader or viewer, as opposed to the imaginary \"secondary world\" of a work of fiction."
      ],
      "id": "en-primary_world-en-noun-YbglMSCQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "fantasy",
          "fantasy"
        ],
        [
          "real",
          "real"
        ],
        [
          "world",
          "world"
        ],
        [
          "reader",
          "reader"
        ],
        [
          "viewer",
          "viewer"
        ],
        [
          "imaginary",
          "imaginary"
        ],
        [
          "secondary world",
          "secondary world"
        ],
        [
          "fiction",
          "fiction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fantasy) The real world of the reader or viewer, as opposed to the imaginary \"secondary world\" of a work of fiction."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "low fantasy"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "fantasy"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "J. R. R. Tolkien",
        "On Fairy-Stories"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "primary world"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "fantasy world"
    },
    {
      "word": "imaginary world"
    },
    {
      "word": "secondary world"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1947 essay \"On Fairy-Stories\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "primary worlds",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "primary world (plural primary worlds)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "low fantasy"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Fantasy",
        "en:J. R. R. Tolkien",
        "en:Worldbuilding"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1947, J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories”, in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, page 60",
          "text": "What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Frederick M. Burelbach, “An Introduction to Naming in the Literature of Fantasy”, in Literary Onomastics Studies, volume 9, number 11, page 132",
          "text": "Now, this secondary world can be made to stand entirely on its own, so that there is no primary world in the fiction and the only reference points to the real world are those the reader brings with him or forges for himself. This is generally the case with what is commonly called \"high\" fantasy, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Nikki Gamble, Sally Yates, “Fantasy and Realism”, in Exploring Children's Literature, page 120",
          "text": "Fantasy fiction has been categorized and described in different ways. One classification divides fantasy into two major types:¶ low fantasy, which takes place in the primary world (our world);¶ high fantasy, which takes place in alternative worlds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The real world of the reader or viewer, as opposed to the imaginary \"secondary world\" of a work of fiction."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fantasy",
          "fantasy"
        ],
        [
          "real",
          "real"
        ],
        [
          "world",
          "world"
        ],
        [
          "reader",
          "reader"
        ],
        [
          "viewer",
          "viewer"
        ],
        [
          "imaginary",
          "imaginary"
        ],
        [
          "secondary world",
          "secondary world"
        ],
        [
          "fiction",
          "fiction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fantasy) The real world of the reader or viewer, as opposed to the imaginary \"secondary world\" of a work of fiction."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "fantasy"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "J. R. R. Tolkien",
        "On Fairy-Stories"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "primary world"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.