preapocalyptic en · ADJ
Etymology
From pre- + apocalyptic.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Before an apocalypse.
Rachel’s decision is partly based on her fear of another attack on New York: they were trying to understand, Hans recalls, “whether we were in a preapocalyptic situation, like the European Jews in the ’30s or the last citizens of Pompeii, or whether our situation was merely near apocalyptic, like that of the cold war inhabitants of New York, London, Washington and, for that matter, Moscow.”
2008 May 16, Michiko Kakutani, “Post 9/11, a New York of Gatsby-Size Dreams and Loss”, in New York Times: