antediluvian
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antediluvian
- /ˌæn.tɪ.dɪˈluː.vɪ.ən/ UK
- /ˌæn.ti.dəˈlu.vi.ən/ US
- /-tə-/ US
- /ˌæn.tə(ˌ)daɪˈlu.vi.ən/ US
- [-ɾi-] US
- [-ɾə-] US
Rhymes with -uːviən
Where it comes from
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.
adjective more antediluvian · most antediluvian · antedeluvian
- 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.
- 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: very old; ancient. [H]is eldest son Bo-bo, […] let some sparks escape into a bundle of straw, which kindling quickly, spread the conflagration over every part of their poor mansion, till it was reduced to ashes. Together with the cottage (a sorry antediluvian make-shift of a building, you may think it), what was of mu
- Of attitudes, ideas, etc.: extremely old-fashioned, especially to a laughable extent; antiquated. Those ideas are antediluvian.
noun antediluvians
- 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; […]
- A person with extremely old-fashioned attitudes, ideas, etc., especially to a laughable extent; a fogey or old fogey.
