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Added 9 October 2026

antediluvian

/ˌæn.tɪ.dɪˈluː.vɪ.ən/ noun

Latin root: dīluvium Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about antediluvian at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Any of the early patriarchs who lived prior to the Noachian deluge.
A very old person.

adjective

Of or relating to the period before the biblical flood.
antediluvian man
So extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period.
a ramshackle antediluvian tenement

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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