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What term is used to mean a "yet-undiscovered, yet possibly out there civilization"?

English Language & Usage Asked on August 22, 2021

Is there a word to refer to an unknown, elusive, undiscovered civilization? (e.g. perhaps it is buried in sands or hidden under some dense jungle, or buried under ocean).

This term might be similar to "John Doe", used to refer to an unnamed person, but "Planet X" is a similar analogy, referring to some yet as of undiscovered planet. I thought the word "Civilization X" might work, but I’m finding such few search results, as to not support this terminology.

Is there such a word in English?

2 Answers

A common word for such a civilization is "Atlantean". The word derives from the legend of the lost city of Atlantis, a city that was described by Plato as having sunk beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean in early times (about ten thousand years ago). The inhabitants were variously supposed to have had an advanced constitutional civilization.

Why Plato imagined such a thing is unclear. A known history of rapid relative changes in Mediterranean sea and land levels that produced sudden coastal submergences and emergences would certainly have conditioned his mind in that direction. These changes originated, and still do, in volcanic or tectonic activity.

Answered by Anton on August 22, 2021

You might want to use the word uncontacted as in uncontacted civilisation. Or perhaps mythical?

Uncontacted (adj): (anthropology, of a tribal society) Completely isolated from other cultures.
[Your Dictionary]

Also see uncontacted peoples

Answered by Decapitated Soul on August 22, 2021

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