antediluvian
adjEtymology
PIE word *dwís From ante- (prefix meaning ‘prior to in time’) + Latin dīluvium (“a flood”) + -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming agent nouns), referring the story of Noah’s Ark, through which God rescues Noah, his family, and examples of all the world’s animals from the great flood, which is related in Genesis 6–9 of the Bible. Dīluvium is derived from dīluō (“to wash away”) (from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder, in two’) + lavō (“to wash”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”))) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The English word is analyzable as ante- + diluvian. Adjective sense 2 (“long extinct”) is from the fact that such animals and plants were originally believed to have perished in the biblical flood referred to above.
Definitions
Belonging or pertaining to, or existing in, the time prior to the great flood described…
Belonging or pertaining to, or existing in, the time prior to the great flood described in Genesis, or (by extension) to a great or destructive flood or deluge described in other mythologies.
- [P]erhaps ſome perſons might outlive Methuſelah; the Text intending onely the maſculine line of Seth, conduceable unto the Genealogy of our Saviour, and the antediluvian Chronology.
- The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of the Atlantean culture / The antediluvian kings colonized the world / All the gods who play in the mythological dramas / In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis
Of animals and plants
Of animals and plants: long extinct; prehistoric.
- Having already described him [the whale] in most of his present habitatory and anatomical peculiarities, it now remains to magnify him in an archæological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of view.
Of a person or thing
Of a person or thing: very old; ancient.
- On the shore were the remains of an antediluvian forest with ugly black stumps showing, and further up an old stubby deserted lighthouse.
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Of attitudes, ideas, etc.
Of attitudes, ideas, etc.: extremely old-fashioned, especially to a laughable extent; antiquated.
- Those ideas are antediluvian.
A person who lived in the time prior to the great flood described in Genesis, especially…
A person who lived in the time prior to the great flood described in Genesis, especially one of the biblical patriarchs.
A very old person.
- From what cursed old antediluvian, who lived before the invention of the spinning-jennies, she learned this craft, Heaven only knows; […]
- He was a boy in form, and an antediluvian in feature. Some thought […] that he was really and truly a Brownie.
A person with extremely old-fashioned attitudes, ideas, etc., especially to a laughable…
A person with extremely old-fashioned attitudes, ideas, etc., especially to a laughable extent; a fogey or old fogey.
The neighborhood
- neighbordeluge
- neighbordiluvial
- neighbordiluvian
- neighbordiluvium
- neighborpostdiluvial
- neighborpostdiluvian
- neighborprediluvian
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for antediluvian. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA