Prehistoric
/ˌpriːhɪˈstɒrɪk/
adjective
Origin
Latin
prae + historia — before + history
Overview
Meaning Now
- Relating to or denoting the period before written records were kept.
- Very old-fashioned, outdated, or primitive.
Literal older meaning
Before history
Language path
Latin → French → English
Earliest form
pre-historic
Earliest period
19th century
Journey
The term was popularized in the mid-19th century as archaeologists and geologists began to distinguish between human timelines defined by oral tradition versus those defined by written text, particularly following the development of the Three-Age System (Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages).
Evolution
- Latin
praehistoria
“before history”
Coined based on prae- (before) and historia (history).
- French
préhistorique
“relating to the time before written history”
First recorded in French around 1830.
- English
prehistoric
“of the period before written records”
Introduced in the 1850s to describe eras lacking human documentation.
Connections
Word parts
pre-
prefix
before
histor-
root
history
-ic
suffix
of or relating to
Related across languages
French
préhistorique
prehistoric
German
prähistorisch
prehistoric
Related words
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External references use DefinedTerm semantics.