Definition of "pre-columbian" [pre-columbian]

• Prior to the time of Christopher Columbus; occurring or existing before the discovery of America by Columbus: as, a pre-Columbian discovery of America.

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "In American Indian tribes, from pre-columbian times until recent history, humans self-identified as "The People," in their respective languages."
• "The new left has made complete fiction of the population estimates for the Americas in pre-columbian times."
• "The middle ages, pre-columbian America, the history of Africa, Europe in the middle ages, eastern Europe in the 19th century, especially the Russian conquest of the Caucasus, the Greek war of independence, the Crimean war, the Japanese-Russian war of 1905... the list goes on and on."