antebellum

From the Latin ante bellum (literally “before the war”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌæn.tiˈbɛl.əm/
• Rhymes: -ɛləm

antebellum (not comparable)

1. Of the time period prior to a war.

   A renewed sense of national pride arose in Hitler's antebellum Germany.

   1. (US) Of the period prior to the American Civil War, especially in reference to the culture of the southern states.

      Slavery was an accepted part of antebellum plantation life.

      • 2004, James M. Volo, Dorothy Denneen Volo, The Antebellum Period, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 115:

        There was no single characteristic house style during the antebellum period, but the elegant plantation homes built in the American South, with their central entrances, balconies, columns, and formal ballrooms, came closest to representing a discrete architectural style for the period.

• pre-war

• postbellum
• post-war

• unmeltable