same as Antediluvian

(q.v.). ăn-tě-di-lu-vi-an, a. & s. [In Ger. antediluvianisch Fr. antediluvien Port, ante diluvia no; Ital. anti diluvia no. From Lat. ante before, and diluvium = a or the deluge.] A. As adjective : 1. Lit. Before the deluge; relating to the persons, the events, or the period before the Noachian deluge. "The text intends only the line of Seth, conducible unto the genealogy of our Saviour and the antediluvian chronology."-Browne: Vulgar Errours. "These huge reptiles, surrounded by the black lava, the leafle shrubs, and large cacti, seemed to my fancy like some antediluvian ntediluvian animals."- Darwin : animals."- Voyage round the World , ch. xvii. 2. Fig .: Rude and primitive, such as may be supposed to have existed before the deluge, in the infancy of manufactures and other departments of civilisation. ". above all, the whole system of travelling accommodations was barbarous and antediluvian for the requisitions of the pampered south."-De Quincey's Works (ed. 1863), vol. ii., pp. 162, 163. B. As substantive: One who lived before the deluge. "We are so far from repining at God, that he hath not extended the period of our lives to the longevity of the an tel i lari ans , that we give him thanks for contracting the days of our trial."-Bentley.