Antediluvian (pronounced an-tee-di-loo-vee-uhn)
(1) In biblical scholarship, of or belonging to the period before the biblical flood of Noah (Genesis chapters 6-9); a person who lived before the biblical great flood, particularly one of the biblical patriarchs (in some translations used as "prediluvian" which for all purposes is synonymous.
(2) In figurative use, anyone with attitudes though old-fashioned, or out of date, antiquated, primitive, outdated, outmoded, ancient, archaic, antique, superannuated, anachronistic, outworn, behind the times, medieval, quaint, old-fangled, obsolescent, obsolete, prehistoric, passé, fossilized etc; those views as held or expressed.
(3) In figurative use, someone very old (in use, an alternative to "Methuselian".
(4) By extension (used loosely), of animals and plants: long extinct; prehistoric.
1640-1650: The construct was the ante- (before (in the sense of "prior to in time")) + dīluvium (a flood) so understood as "the time before the great flood". The ante- prefix was from the Latin preposition and prefix ante, from the primitive Indo-European hénti, locative singular of the root noun hent- (front, front side). It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἀντί (antí) (opposite, facing), the Old Armenian ընդ (ənd), the Tocharian Bānte, the English and, the Sanskrit अन्ति (anti), the Gothic and- & (in compounds) anda- & ōnd- and the German ant- & (in compounds) ent-. The word was coined by English physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). Dīluvium was from dīluō (to wash away), the construct being dis- (the prefix here used in the sense of "apart; tear asunder; in two) + lavō (to wash), from the primitive Indo-European lewh- (to wash) + -ium (the suffix used to form abstract nouns). The use to refer to long extinct animals & plants began in orthodox science because it was once held all must have perished under the waters of the biblical flood. The spelling antedeluvian is obsolete. Antediluvian is a noun & adjective, antediluvianism is a noun, antediluvial is an adjective and antediluvially & antediluvianly are adverbs; the noun plural is antediluvians.
Handy adjective: politicians and others
Though sometimes casually treated as such, prehistoric and antediluvian are not synonyms. Prehistoric has a precise (though culturally and geographically variable) meaning. It means "before history was written down", hence before writing which emerged some five millennia ago in Mesopotamia. Historians note the pivot has to be the creation of writing with some historic meaning and that earlier (usually financial) records don’t fulfil this criterion. Representational forms predated writing, most famously as cave paintings, but these, while helpful in the interpretation of the archaeological record, don’t impart meaning and record events with the detail or accuracy inherent in the use of a written text.
Literal: The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge (1829), oil on canvas by Thomas Cole (1801-1848).
Antediluvian (before the flood) is a word from biblical scholarship. Historically, it referred to the time prior to the biblical flood of Noah but in modern use it's used also of the notion of a monumental flood preserved in the folklore of a remarkable number of cultures although there is nothing in the geological record to suggest there was ever a global flood quite as described in the Old Testament. Although usually used figuratively, for biblical-literalists (many of them south of the Mason-Dixon line), antediluvian means the actual time before the flood described in chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis. The literalists invented their own field of study called "diluvial geology" (also labelled the "flood or creation geology") and regard the text in Genesis 6–9 as a scientific record; they date the great flood to within the last five thousand years. The term is used also in the field of Assyriology for kings (those, according to the Sumerian king list, supposed to have reigned before the great flood).
Figurative: Scott Morrison (b 1968; Australian prime-minister 2018-2022, right ) showing an admiring Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice (between local difficulties) deputy prime minister of Australia 2016-2022, left) a lump of coal (varnished by a dutiful staffer to avoid any dust from the little store of carbon), Parliament House, Canberra, February 2017. Mr Morrison and Mr Joyce, for a variety of reasons, were doughty advocates of the burning of fossil fuels and great supports of the mining industry.
As a pejorative adjective, antediluvian is sometimes used figuratively although the choice is not always most appropriate. "Ancient" is probably better to describe something old or "antiquated" if so old as to lack functionality; "Methuselan" (an allusion to Methuselah, the oldest person in the Hebrew Bible who lived an impressive 969 years) works best for those who seem perilously old. The 2024 US presidential election looks Methuselaic because, in the style of 1964 when it was "crooked old Lyndon vs crazy old Barry, we'll be able to enjoy "sleazy old Donald vs senile old Joe". Antediluvian is best reserved to describe the archaic or outdated views and opinions held by people, regardless of their age. Mr Morrison (a fundamentalist Christian who, presumably, believes the flood happened exactly as described in the Book of Genesis) and Mr Joyce maintained their antediluvian attitudes to the burning of fossil fuels even when buried under the weight of their own absurdity. In 2024, the Liberal party, now under new management, switched tactics and began to advocate the construction of multiple nuclear power-plants, opening a new theatre in the culture wars of energy policy.
On paper, while not without challenges, the country does enjoy certain advantages in making nuclear part of the energy mix: (1) With abundant potential further to develop wind and solar generation, the nuclear plants would need only to provide the baseload power required when renewable sources were either inadequate or unavailable; (2) the country would be self-sufficient in raw uranium ore (although it has no enrichment capacity) and (3) the place is vast and geologically stable so in a rational world it would be nominated as the planet's repository of spent nuclear fuel and other waste. The debate as it unfolds is likely to focus on other matters and nobody images any such plant can in the West be functioning in less than twenty-odd years (the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gets things done much more quickly) so there's plenty of time to squabble and plenty of people anxious to join in. Mr Joyce has with alacrity become a champion of all things nuclear (electricity, submarines and probably bombs although, publicly, he's never discussed the latter) and the National Party has never approved of solar panels and wind turbines because they associate them with feminism, seed-eating vegans, homosexuals and other symbols of all which is wrong with modern society. While in his coal-black heart Mr Joyce's world view probably remains as antediluvian as ever, he can sniff the political wind in a country now beset by wildfires, floods and heatwaves and talks less of the beauty of burning fossil fuels.
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