Atlantean

plural Atlanteans · alternative Atlantian

1. An inhabitant of the mythical island of Atlantis.

   1847, M. Bodichon, Études sur l'Algérie, translated in Nott & Gliddon, 1854, Types of mankind, The Atlanteans, among the ancients, passed for the favorite children of Neptune; they made known the worship of this god to other nations

2. A pillar or statue in the form of an architectural atlas.

   This pyramid has been restored and the tall statues, called Atlanteans (Los Atlantes), have been erected on its summit.

   c. 2005, Sacred Sites: Tula

alternative Atlantian

1. not comparableOf or like the Greek titan Atlas, who carries the heavens on his shoulders, as in Atlantean strength

   With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear / The weight of mightiest Monarchies.

   1667, Milton, Paradise Lost

2. figurativelynot comparableOf the celestial spheres carried by Atlas

   1940, WHD Rouse, trans. of Nonnus, Dionysiaca I [Elektra] shall pass from the earth to the stars’ Atlantean vault, and dwell in heaven

3. not comparableOf an architectural atlas or atlantid, or reminiscent of such: atlantean figures

   Arms outstretched, an Atlantean statue of Jesus welcomes a diver in the mysterious depths off Ambergris Caye

   2004, Lonely Planet, The travel book

4. not comparableOf the mythical island of Atlantis, its people, or its civilization.

   1 more example

   2002, Vadim Joseph Rossman, Vidal Sassoon, International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim), Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era, Barkashov saw a critical difference between Atlantis and Hyperborea in the organization of labor. The Atlantean economy, he claims, was based on the use of the mass slave labor in agriculture and crafts, while the Aryan civilization did not employ slaves nor tolerate slavery.

5. figurativelynot comparableflooded or submerged, especially in case of a natural disaster, reminiscent of the way Atlantis sank into the ocean

   So [after the tsunami], once again Hideaki navigated his way through the Atlantean city, picking his way through crumbling wreckage, splintered wood, and shredded metal to find his elderly mother.

   2011, Ben Thompson, Badass of the Week: Hideaki Akaiwa

6. not comparableof Saturn's moon Atlas

alternative Atlantian

1. The language supposedly spoken by the inhabitants of Atlantis.

   How Atlantean sounded or how the various alphabets worked is anyone's guess, of course, but since there is a certain logic to how language is constructed, we might allow that theirs may not have been so different from our own.

   2008, J. Allan Danelek, Atlantis: Lessons from the Lost Continent

2. A constructed language invented for the 2001 animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

   Indeed, Okrand's goal in inventing Atlantean was to recreate Indo-European, and it thus borrows from several languages yet contains no recognizable words from these linguistic systems.

   2006, Tim Conley, Stephen Cain, Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages