antediluvian

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Extremely old-fashioned, as if from a much earlier age.

   His antediluvian views on women in the workplace shocked his younger colleagues.

2. 2
   adj

   Belonging to the time before the great flood described in the Bible.

   The myth describes a lost antediluvian world swept away by the waters.

Simplified etymology

Antediluvian dates from the mid-17th century and is based on Latin diluvium, “flood.” It literally means “before the biblical Flood.”

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…

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