pre-Columbian

See also: Precolumbian

English

Alternative forms

• Precolumbian

Etymology

pre- +‎ Columbian

Adjective

pre-Columbian (not comparable)

1. (historical) Before the voyages of Christopher Columbus of the 1490s which introduced greatly widened contacts between Eurasia and the Americas.

   since pre-Columbian times

   unknown in Europe in pre-Columbian times

2. Referring to the cultures of the Americas before the European influence, specifically to the era before the continent was visited by Christopher Columbus.

   Coordinate terms: precontact, precolonial, pre-Hispanic, pre-European

   pre-Columbian cultures

   pre-Columbian civilizations

   • 1961, Margaret A. Towle, The Ethnobotany of Pre-Columbian Peru, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 2:

     In fact, the dating of pre-Columbian Andean cultures was largely a matter of guesswork.

   • 2010, Marylou Kjelle, In Pre-Columbian America, Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 41:

     Boys trained to be warriors, but why did pre-Columbian peoples battle one another?

Translations

before Christopher Columbus

• Catalan: precolombí
• Danish: præ-columbiansk
• Dutch: precolumbiaans (nl)
• French: précolombien (fr)
• Galician: precolombiano
• German: präkolumbisch (de)
• Hungarian: prekolumbiánus (hu)
• Italian: precolombiano
• Portuguese: pré-colombiano m
• Spanish: precolombino (es)
• Swedish: förcolumbiansk (sv)

Further reading

• pre-Columbian era on Wikipedia.Wikipedia