antediluvian
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L316323 on Wikidata ↗adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L334470 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌæn.tɪ.dɪˈluː.vɪ.ən/ / /ˌæn.ti.dəˈlu.vi.ən/ / /-tə-/
adj
Etymology: 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.
- 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.”
“For Noah, vvho had no doubt preach'd againſt the Vices of the Antediluvian VVorld, and againſt Drunkenneſs among the reſt, muſt certainly knovv the Uſe of the Vine, and the Abuſe of it too; hovv elſe did he come to plant it at all, and to preſs the Juice out for Drinking it at all?”
- 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 much more importance, a fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no less than nine in number, perished.”
“On the shore were the remains of an antediluvian forest with ugly black stumps showing, and further up an old stubby deserted lighthouse.”
- Of attitudes, ideas, etc.: extremely old-fashioned, especially to a laughable extent; antiquated.
“Those ideas are antediluvian.”
“If, by any miſchance, and in an evil hour, ſome country couſin, not knovving my vvays, or ſome antediluvian prig, not minding them, happen to fall upon me vvith formal ſpeeches, vvhere I can make no eſcape, a fit of yavvning takes me immediately, and I am demoliſhed for the reſt of the day.”
noun
Etymology: 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.
- 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 extent; a fogey or old fogey.