Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Before the war: often used (joined by a hyphen) attributively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective belonging to a period before a war, especially the American Civil War.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of the time period prior to a war.
  • adjective In the United States of America, of the period prior to the American Civil War, especially in reference to the culture of the southern states.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective belonging to a period before a war especially the American Civil War

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin ante bellum, before the war : ante, before; see ante– + bellum, war.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Latin phrase ante bellum (literally "before the war"), from ante ("before") + bellum ("war").

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