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Primitive Baptist noun A sect of Baptists known for its legalistic strictures, adherence to predestination, practice of foot washing, and opposition to infant baptism and missions.

1856 (in 1956 Eliason Tarheel Talk 288) (Caldwell Co NC) Was recived by examinytion on the primitive baptis faith. 1908 Smith Reminiscences 412 The primitive or “foot-washing” Baptists still have their churches in the mountain coves, where their shepherds feed their flocks on sound and fury and nonsense; but the missionary Baptist and the circuit-rider follow steadily in the wake of the schoolmaster, and the sect in ignorance is already doomed. 1939 Hall Coll (Tobes Creek NC) The Primitive Baptists believe in absolute predestination, and they are opposed to foreign missions. 1965 Shields Cades Cove 8 Churches were organized early [in Cades Cove]. The Primitive Baptist sect, being the dominant one of the mountains, was the first to organize in 1876. The Olivers and Gregorys were very prominent in this church. 2013 Pierce Corn in Jar 52 Primitive Baptists—common in the Smokies—seemed particularly tolerant towards the moonshiners in their midst. Primitives have never stopped using wine in communion and as historian Charles Thompson puts it, “Teetotal prohibition was never a stated Primitive Baptist goal.”