pre-Adamite

American  

[pree-ad-uh-mahyt] / priˈæd əˌmaɪt /

noun

1. a person supposed to have existed before Adam.

2. a person who believes that there were people in existence before Adam.

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adjective

1. Also pre-Adamic existing before Adam.

2. of or relating to the pre-Adamites.

Etymology

Origin of pre-Adamite

First recorded in 1655–65; pre- + Adam + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

Such insight is extraordinary enough in the pre-Adamite epoch; but even more remarkable are his psychological foundations.

From Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham by Laski, Harold Joseph

For it is not without significance that the pre-Adamite economists were almost without exception the urgent defenders of religious toleration.

From Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham by Laski, Harold Joseph

He is pre-Adamite, I said,—and name him thus not as a piece of rhetorical smartness, but in gravest characterization.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 by Various

All my impressions of them are summed in the epithet, often repeated, pre-Adamite.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 by Various

A. Perhaps, then, there is, after all not so much absurdity as has been supposed in the oriental traditions of pre-Adamite kings.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various