pre-Adamite

noun

A member of any race that predates Adam.

OriginEnglish Adamite ← Middle English Adam ← Old English Adam →
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Meanings

nounpre-Adamite (plural pre-Adamites)

plural pre-Adamites · alternative præ-Adamite

  1. A member of any race that predates Adam.
  2. A believer in pre-Adamitism.
adjectivepre-Adamite (comparative more pre-Adamite, superlative most pre-Adamite)

comparative more pre-Adamite · superlative most pre-Adamite · alternative præ-Adamite

  1. Of or pertaining to a race that predates Adam; pre-human.

    I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule.

    1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, “Poo-Bah”, in […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*préh₂i?
  4. Proto-Italic*prai
  5. Proto-Italic*prai-
  6. Latinprae-
  7. Middle Englishpre-
  8. Englishpre-
  9. Proto-Semitic*ʔadam-
  10. Hebrewאָדָם
  11. Ancient GreekἈδάμ (Adám)
  12. LatinĀdām
  13. Old EnglishAdam
  14. Middle EnglishAdam
  15. EnglishAdam
  16. EnglishAdamite
  17. Englishpre-Adamite

From pre- + Adamite.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pre-Adamite. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-Adamite

MLA

“pre-Adamite.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-Adamite. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pre-Adamite,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-Adamite.

Source: pre-Adamite on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.