prediluvian

English

Etymology

From pre- +‎ diluvian.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -uːviən

Adjective

prediluvian (not comparable)

1. Before the Flood; antediluvian.

Noun

prediluvian (plural prediluvians)

1. One who lived before the Flood; an antediluvian.
   • 1786 November, The County Magazine, for the Years 1786 and 1787, volume I, Salisbury: […] B. C. Collins, and by S. Crowder, in London, published 1788, page 173:

     When Noah in ark, with his ſons did embark, / Prediluvians, uplifted and pompous, / Deem’d his nautical ſcheme a fantaſtical dream, / And pronounc’d the projector non compos.

   • 2005, C. E. V. Craufurd, Treasure of Ophir: In Search of a Lost City, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2011, →ISBN, page 186:

     […] for the British have in 1,500 years progressed from an initial stage that was probably inferior to that of the prediluvians, and any shipbuilding that they learned from earlier races was a hindrance, not a help.

   • 2016, Tremper Longman III, Genesis (The Story of God Bible Commentary), Zondervan, →ISBN, page 104:

     With only two exceptions the prediluvians lived into their tenth century.