antediluvian
/'æntidi'lu:vjən/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- Extremely old or outdated: Describes something so ancient that it seems to belong to a much earlier period, often implying it is obsolete or primitive.
- Relating to the period before the Biblical Flood: Pertaining to the time or world before the great flood described in the Book of Genesis.
Noun:
- A very old person: An elderly individual, often humorously or disparagingly implying they are out of touch with the modern world.
- A patriarch from before the Flood: Any of the early biblical figures who lived prior to the Noachian deluge.
Usage Examples
Adjective:
- The museum displayed an antediluvian computer that used floppy disks. (The computer was extremely outdated.)
- His views on technology are positively antediluvian. (His views are completely obsolete.)
- Scientists study antediluvian fossils. (They study fossils from a very ancient, pre-flood era.)
Noun:
- My grandfather is a lovely old antediluvian who still writes letters by hand. (He is a very old-fashioned person.)
- According to the Bible, Methuselah was an antediluvian. (He was a patriarch who lived before the Flood.)
Advanced Usage
- Used figuratively to criticize ideas, institutions, or objects as hopelessly old-fashioned and no longer relevant.
- The company's antediluvian policies are driving away young talent.
- In academic or religious contexts, it specifically denotes the pre-flood epoch.
- Theories about antediluvian civilizations are a topic of fringe archaeology.
Variants and Related Words
- Antediluvial (adj): A less common synonym, also meaning "of or belonging to the period before the Flood."
- Pre-diluvian (adj): A synonym meaning "existing or occurring before the Flood."
Synonyms
- Archaic: Very old or old-fashioned.
- Obsolete: No longer produced or used; out of date.
- Prehistoric: Of or relating to the period before written records.
- Outmoded: No longer fashionable or in use.
Antonyms
- Modern: Of or relating to the present or recent times.
- Contemporary: Belonging to or occurring in the present.
- Current: Of the present time.
- Up-to-date: Incorporating the latest developments or styles.
Related Phrases and Idioms
- While not a phrasal verb, the term is often used in the phrase "antediluvian times/era/world" to refer to a very distant, almost mythical past.
- It felt like we had stepped back into an antediluvian world, untouched by modern technology.
Adjective
- so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
- a ramshackle antediluvian tenement
- antediluvian ideas
- archaic laws
- of or relating to the period before the biblical flood
- antediluvian man
Noun
- a very old person
- any of the early patriarchs who lived prior to the Noachian deluge