English

Alternative forms

• Atlantian

Noun

Atlantean ‎(plural Atlanteans)

1. An inhabitant of the mythical island of Atlantis.
   • 1847, M. Bodichon, Études sur l'Algérie, translated in Nott & Gliddon, 1854, Types of mankind,

     The Atlanteans, among the ancients, passed for the favorite children of Neptune; they made known the worship of this god to other nations

2. A pillar or statue in the form of an architectural atlas.
   • ca. 2005, Sacred Sites: Tula

     This pyramid has been restored and the tall statues, called Atlanteans (Los Atlantes), have been erected on its summit.

Translations

Adjective

Atlantean ‎(not comparable)

1. Of or like the Greek titan Atlas, who carries the heavens on his shoulders, as in Atlantean strength
   • 1667, Milton, Paradise Lost

     With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear / The weight of mightiest Monarchies.

2. (figuratively) Of the celestial spheres carried by Atlas
   • 1940, WHD Rouse, trans. of Nonnus, Dionysiaca

     I [Elektra] shall pass from the earth to the stars’ Atlantean vault, and dwell in heaven

3. Of an architectural atlas or atlantid, or reminiscent of such: atlantean figures
   • 2004, Lonely Planet, The travel book

     Arms outstretched, an Atlantean statue of Jesus welcomes a diver in the mysterious depths off Ambergris Caye

4. Of the mythical island of Atlantis, its people, or its civilization.
   • 2002, Vadim Joseph Rossman, Vidal Sassoon, International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim), Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era,

     Barkashov saw a critical difference between Atlantis and Hyperborea in the organization of labor. The Atlantean economy, he claims, was based on the use of the mass slave labor in agriculture and crafts, while the Aryan civilization did not employ slaves nor tolerate slavery.

5. (figuratively) flooded or submerged, especially in case of a natural disaster, reminiscent of the way Atlantis sank into the ocean
   • 2011, Ben Thompson, Badass of the Week: Hideaki Akaiwa

     So [after the tsunami], once again Hideaki navigated his way through the Atlantean city, picking his way through crumbling wreckage, splintered wood, and shredded metal to find his elderly mother.

6. of Saturn's moon Atlas

Related terms

• Atlantic
• Atlantis
• atlantal

Proper noun

Atlantean

1. The language supposedly spoken by the inhabitants of Atlantis.
   • 2008, J. Allan Danelek, Atlantis: Lessons from the Lost Continent,

     How Atlantean sounded or how the various alphabets worked is anyone's guess, of course, but since there is a certain logic to how language is constructed, we might allow that theirs may not have been so different from our own.

2. A language invented for the 2001 animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
   • 2006, Tim Conley, Stephen Cain, Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages,

     Indeed, Okrand's goal in inventing Atlantean was to recreate Indo-European, and it thus borrows from several languages yet contains no recognizable words from these linguistic systems.

Anagrams

• antenatal