The adjective antebellum [an-tee-bel-uhm], meaning “before the war,” is from Latin ante, “before,” and bellum, “war.” In U. S. usage, the word is most commonly used to refer to the period between the Revolutionary War and the War Between the States (1861-1864).
One speaks of ante-bellum society and ante-bellum architecture. Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone With the Wind begins in the ante-bellum South.
