Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A deluge or an inundation; an overflowing.
- n. Coarse detrital material, wherever found: a term introduced into geology in consequence of a general belief in the past occurrence of a universal deluge. Finer materials, usually occupying the lower parts of valleys, and occurring especially along the courses of great rivers, were called
alluvium (which see). In the use of the words diluvium and alluvium (diluvial, alluvial) there is an obscure recognition of a fundamental fact in geology, namely, that rivers have been gradually diminishing in volume, a condition which necessarily connects itself with diminished erosive power. But the idea of a catastrophic period of diluvial action, preceded and followed by repose, such as lies at the base of the belief in the deluge, is no longer in vogue, and the word diluvium has become almost obsolete except among German geologists.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Geol.) A deposit of superficial loam, sand, gravel, stones, etc., caused by former action of flowing waters, or the melting of glacial ice.
Etymologies
- From Latin dīluvium ("flood"), from lavō ("I wash"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Connected with the diluvium is the history of ossiferous caverns, of which specimens singly exist at Kirkdale in Yorkshire, Gailenreuth in”
“In the form and direction of the horns, these famous wild white oxen seem to be living {2} representatives of the race whose bones are found in a fossil state in England and some parts of the Continent in the "diluvium" bone-caves, mixed with the bones of bears, hyenas, and other wild animals, now the cotemporaries of the Bos Gour, or Asiatic Ox, upon mountainous slopes of Western India.”
“Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man coexisted with the animals found in the 'diluvium'; and many a barbarous race may, before all historical time, have disappeared, together with the animals of the ancient world, whilst the races whose organization is improved have continued the genus.”
“The term "diluvium," now obsolete in Britain but still lingering on the Continent, is equivalent to Pleistocene.”
“diluvium," to prove the former co-existence of man with certain extinct mammalia.”
“No better example can be found of his anti-diluvium attitudes about life than his totally predictable rants about baseball.”
George Will is still ranting a rant that has been ranted for 50 years.
“Along the western base the range diluvium is accumulated in large quantities but in general this formation is not as abundant to the west as to the east of Connecticut river." link”
“That it was beyond doubt that these human relics were traceable to a period at which the latest animals of the diluvium still existed; but that no proof of this assumption, nor consequently of their so-termed ‘fossil’ condition, was afforded by the circumstances under which the bones were discovered.”
“Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man coexisted with the animals found in the ‘diluvium’; and many a barbarous race may, before all historical time, have disappeared, together with the animals of the ancient world, whilst the races whose organization is improved have continued the genus.”
“It has even been supposed that in diluvial deposits the presence of ‘dendrites’ might be regarded as affording a certain mark of distinction between bones mixed with the diluvium at a somewhat later period and the true diluvial relics, to which alone it was supposed that these deposits were confined.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘diluvium’.
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Not in the Periodic Table
Words that sound like they might be the names of elements of the periodic table, but that aren't. Many of the words listed here were actually proposed as names for substances their creators thought...
tentorium, columbarium, nasturtium, deuterium, caladium, valerian, concordium, synangium, chorium, geranium, hymenium, pyrenium and 310 more...
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Which see
A list of words with definitions containing the phrase "which see."
moteur, fancy, grass, frog, Art, illusion, battleship, duck, beaver, Seder, clam, zythiaceæ and 118 more...
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1906 Railway Cipher Code
Terms from the Standard Cipher Code of the American Railway Association, 1906. The terms were shorthand for common phrases used in telegraphic communications between station agents and Railway Asso...
abdominal, abetting, abiology, ablative, abnormal, abominate, aboveboard, abrasive, absinth, abstinent, accursed, acetate and 212 more...
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Rillons of Random Palavery
A list for terms and phrases that I haven't (yet) entered into themed lists, including my series of various 151-word Random Palavery lists. Constructions that catch my eye, ring in my ears, tease m...
ridge cucumber, co-CEO, debt worry, jackalope bustiere, gimblette, ring-biscuit, cobnut, poussoir, praire, coque rayée, rigadelle, coing and 1459 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for diluvium.
hernesheir Railroad telegraph shorthand notation meaning "10:45 p.m. yesterday." --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906, p. 177. Jan 21, 2013