prediluvianadj.n.

1690 E. Warren Geologia (new ed.) viii. 188 The days just before the Flood, must of necessity be longer than ever they were in the prediluvian World, supposing Day and Night be made by the Earth's turning upon its own axis.

1764 R. Jones Hist. Lex. in Origin of Lang. & Nations at Babel This language..defines the prediluvian as well as the postdiluvian names, and gives the etymology of languages preferable to any other.

1782 T. Maude Verbeia Appendix 5 In the prediluvian world, Longevity is marked as one of the blessings of the Patriarch.

1855 Wyllie in M. Hopkins Hawaii (1862) 320 The original language spoken by Adam and the prediluvian race of man, if not the post-diluvian Hebrew, has disappeared.

1931 C. Williams Place of Lion xvi. 277 Some incantation whereby the prediluvian magicians had controlled contentions among spirits.

1953 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 24 134/2 Since Engspeech was a scholar, he decided to look further. And the more he looked, the more he realized that he was living in a practically prediluvian age.

1981 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 June 731/2 No breath of eighteenth-century scepticism, no whiff of modern philosophy, had penetrated those quiet valleys or tarnished their pre-diluvian fundamentalist faith.

2004 Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl. (Nexis) 4 Oct. a9 The prediluvian elders of the Hebrew Bible, some of whom were said to have lived for many centuries.

1690 E. Warren Geologia (new ed.) xiii. 277 There are few that write for this Longævity of the Prediluvians; but they still quote this place in Iosephus.

1786 County Mag. Nov. 173/1 When Noah in ark, with his sons did embark, Prediluvians, uplifted and pompous, Deem'd his nautical scheme a fantastical dream.

1804 J. Collins Scripscrapologia 169 Prediluvians, uplifted and pompous Deem'd his nautical Scheme a fantastical Dream.

1906 Nevada State Jrnl. 6 Jan. 5/3 The modes of life of the pre-diluvians will become thoroughly understood.