prelapsarian

WOTD – 21 April 2011    

English

Before the fall, in the carefree days in the Garden of Eden.

Alternative forms

• pre-lapsarian

Etymology

From pre- +‎ Latin lapsus (“fall”) +‎ -arian.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /pɹiːlapˈsɛːɹɪən/

Adjective

prelapsarian (not comparable)

1. Of, or relating to the period of innocence before the Fall of man; innocent, unspoiled.
   • 2004, Janet Bertsch, Storytelling in the works of Bunyan, Grimmelshausen, Defoe, and Schnabel, page 4,

     Ideally, individual stories and God's plan share the same final goal, namely, returning to a prelapsarian state of perfect communication with God.

   • 2009, Tom Service, The Guardian, 1 Jun 2010:

     Can you really turn a few keyboards outside London's landmarks into the equivalent of a pub honky-tonk for a good old knees-up; a 50s living room where the family would gather around the piano every evening, in some prelapsarian vision of the olden days [...]?

   • 2010, "The perils of constitution-worship", The Economist, 23 Sep 2010:

     Conservative think-tanks have the same dream of return to a prelapsarian innocence.

Synonyms

• (Christianity): antelapsarian, superlapsarian, superlapsarian
• (carefree period): halcyon

Antonyms

• postlapsarian

Coordinate terms

• antediluvian

Related terms

• lapsarian
• postlapsarian

Translations

innocent, unspoiled

• Finnish: syntiinlankeemusta edeltävä (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can

• Russian: догреховный (ru) (dogrexovnyj), безгреховный (ru) (bezgrexovnyj)

See also

• Lapsarianism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Lapsarianism
• Fall of Man on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Fall of Man