prelapsarian

adjective

pre·lap·sar·i·an ˌprē-ˌlap-ˈser-ē-ən

: characteristic of or belonging to the time or state before the fall of humankind

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Prelapsarian is the latest creation in the "lapsarian" family, which is etymologically related to Latin lapsus, meaning "slip" or "fall." "Supralapsarian" is the firstborn, appearing in 1633 as a word for someone who held the belief that people were predestined to either eternal life or eternal death before the Creation and the Fall (the event in the Bible when Adam and Eve were forced to leave the Garden of Eden because they had sinned against God). Next in line is "sublapsarian," which refers to a person who adhered to the view that God foresaw and permitted the Fall and after the Fall decreed predestination to eternal life as a means of saving some of the human race. That word first appears in 1656 and was followed by its synonym, "infralapsarian," in distant 1731. Postlapsarian, meaning "of, relating to, or characteristic of the time or state after the Fall," appeared two years later, and "prelapsarian" was delayed until 1879.

Examples of prelapsarian in a Sentence

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Perhaps this is just a brief moment of prelapsarian bliss, doomed to give way to run-of-the-mill internet toxicity. —Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 1 Dec. 2022 The landscape was constantly changing and frequently spectacular, from the prelapsarian lushness of the Franklin to rolling green hills that could pass for the English countryside to stark vistas with an almost Nordic ruggedness. —Steve King, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Aug. 2021