different between prehistoric vs prehistory

English

Alternative forms

• pre-historic

Etymology

From pre- (“before”) +? historic, q.v., similar to slightly earlier ante-historic.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?r?k

Adjective

prehistoric (comparative more prehistoric, superlative most prehistoric)

1. (properly) Of or relating to the epoch before written record.
   • 1832 October, Foreign Quarterly Review, p. 369:

     Was it then in a pre-historic time that the Romans wandered into these lands?

2. (inexact or humorous) Synonym of ancient: very old, nonmodern, unfashionable, etc.

Synonyms

• ante-historic

Derived terms

• prehistorically
• prehistoric age

Related terms

• prehistory

Descendants

• French: préhistorique

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• pre-history

Etymology

From pre- (“before”) +? history, first attested in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836, after the model of prehistoric, from French préhistorique.

Noun

prehistory (countable and uncountable, plural prehistories)

1. (properly) History before written records, inclusive of both
   1. The time before written records in any area of the world; the events and conditions of those times.
   2. The study of those times.
2. (humorous, hyperbolic) Any past time (even recent) treated as such a distant, unknowable era.
   • 1984, Shiva Naipaul, Beyond the Dragon's Mouth, p. 25:

     I was a town boy through and through. The country belonged to a vague pre-history.

3. (often as pre-history) The history leading up to some event, condition, etc.
   • 1931 July 25, Time & Tide, p. 893:

     Psychologists... are mostly bad historians, inventing—as Freud has done—their pre-history to suit their theories.

Synonyms

• (time before written records): prehistoric age, prehistoric times

Antonyms

• posthistory

Related terms

• prehistoric

Translations

References

• “prehistory, n.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2007