Words
Antediluvian
A great old word for old things
After defenestration, my second favourite word is probably antediluvian. Rather unusually, it’s a real word I learned from Doctor Who (if you’re a Who fan, you can probably guess which Doctor is likely to casually drop a six syllable word into the conversation. Answer in note 1 at the end).
This wonderful word is occasionally used today: sometimes I hear politicians using it to attack their opponents. In my opinion, it’s a great word that deserves to be used more widely.
Origin & Meaning
The word antediluvian consists of two parts, both of which have Latin origins:
- ante. This means ‘before’ and is commonly used in English words such as antenatal and antepenultimate. Ante is also a poker term referring to money put into the pot before the hand is dealt.
- diluvian. This is from the Latin diluvium, meaning flood. Via French this also gives us the modern English word ‘deluge’
So putting that together, antediluvian literally means ‘before the flood’. This is a Biblical reference which essentially means ancient. The word was coined by Thomas Browne in the 17th century (Browne is also credited with inventing many other words such as ambidextrous, coma and — of special interest to…
