Dictionary

Edenic en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /iːˈdɛnɪk/
• /ɪˈdɛnɪk/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Eden + -ic.

Meanings

1. Of or suggesting Eden, the paradise of the Bible.
   • Our understanding of the Edenic motif in American fiction stems largely from its articulation by three primary critics — R.W.B. Lewis, Leslie Fiedler, and D. H. Lawrence. 1999, Robert W. Hamblin; Charles A. Peek, editors, A William Faulkner Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 111:
   • To the extent that an abstract Edenic landscape crowds out the teenage rubber tapper in a faded World Cup T-shirt, the stinging smoke of factories in a treeless city ringed by forest, or the lone plant sprouting in the cracks of a sunbaked roof, it impoverishes our vision of Amazonia, as well as of a larger natural world that demands not just to be respected but, first of all, to be rethought. 1995, Candace Slater, “Amazonia as Edenic Narrative”, in William Cronon, editor, Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 115:
   • Thus, when Paul and Billy turn to the Edenic archetype, one must not view this as an acceptance of the "truth" of the Judeo-Christian tradition from which this myth is borrowed. 1994, Will Wright, Steven Kaplan, The Image of Technology in Literature, the Media, and Society:
   • But we need not try to re-create these circumstances, any more than the Sabbath celebration of an Edenic world means that celebrants must go naked and picnic in a garden; we need only make it a happy and special meal. 2014, Gracia Fay Ellwood, Taking the Adventure: Faith and Our Kinship with Animals, →ISBN, page 194:
   • The world Burden inhabits with her husband, James (she has changed his name here, but apparently not much else), is one of Edenic privilege. They live in multimillion-dollar homes in New York and on Martha’s Vineyard, belong to private clubs, have keys to private beaches, kids in private schools. 2026 January 11, Alex Kuczynski, “Her Life Was an Old-Money Dream. It Collapsed in a Moment.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

Edenic en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /iːˈdɛnɪk/
• /ɪˈdɛnɪk/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Eden + -ic.

Meanings

1. One who promotes an Edenic ideal.
   • Let all that have an ear hear and all that have an eye see, the Edenic will not be denied! 2014, Rich'iz Burnstine, The Edenic, →ISBN, page 195:
   • Then there are the Edenics, who exclude all cooked food; the Wallacites, who abhor salt and refuse bread containing yeast; the Haigites, who do not include peas or beans in their vegetarianism; and the Allinsonians, who abandoned tea in favor of a solution of dried cereals. 1905, Search-light Thrown on the Activities of the World; Volumes 25-26, page 314:
   • The Edenics wrote historical novels that place the belle in an antebellum setting, perpetuate the notion that she is an ideal woman, and, most important, present her as a symbol for the lost Garden of the antebellum South. 1985, Kathryn Lee Seidel, The southern Belle in the American novel, page 127:

Forms

Translations (15)

it edenico (of or suggesting Eden) · gl edénico (of or suggesting Eden) · hy եդեմական (of or suggesting Eden) · sv edenlik (of or suggesting Eden) · pl edeński (of or suggesting Eden) · hy եդեմային (of or suggesting Eden) · pt edénico (of or suggesting Eden) · pt edênico (of or suggesting Eden) · nl paradijselijk (of or suggesting Eden) · ca edènic (of or suggesting Eden) · fr édénique (of or suggesting Eden) · de paradiesisch (of or suggesting Eden) · ro edenic (of or suggesting Eden) · es edénico (of or suggesting Eden) · fr paradisiaque (of or suggesting Eden)