Meanings
- not comparablePrior to the formation of Earth
The System of the World of Laplace is the history of a preterrestrial era, the history of the world before the formation of the planet Earth, or if one prefers, of the Earth in its unity with the Sun.
1980, Eugenio Donato, “The Museum's Furnace”, in Textual Strategies, →ISBN, page 235 - not comparablegeographyOccurring prior to a meteorite's impact with Earth
A plagioclase glass in some chondrites and irons formed by preterrestrial impact between meteorites in space.
2003, American Geological Institute, Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms, →ISBN, page 333
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*per-
- Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
- Proto-Indo-European*préh₂i?
- Proto-Italic*prai
- Proto-Italic*prai-
- Latinprae-
- Middle Englishpre-
- Englishpre-
- Englishterrestrial
- Englishpreterrestrial
From pre- + terrestrial.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
preterrestrial. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/preterrestrial
“preterrestrial.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/preterrestrial. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “preterrestrial,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/preterrestrial.
Source: preterrestrial on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.