Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Prehistoric |
PrehistoricAdjective1. Belonging to or existing in times before recorded history; "prehistoric settlements"; "prehistoric peoples". 2. Of or relating to times before written history; "prehistoric archeology". 3. (informal) "my mother has these prehistoric ideas about proper clothes". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "prehistoric" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1864. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | PREHISTORIC, adj. Belonging to an early period and a museum. Antedating the art and practice of perpetuating falsehood. He lived in a period prehistoric, When all was absurd and phantasmagoric. Born later, when Clio, celestial recorded, Set down great events in succession and order, He surely had seen nothing droll or fortuitous In anything here but the lies that she threw at us. Orpheus Bowen. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Biology & Biotechnology | Of, relating to, or existing in times antedating written history; i. e. in the United States and in South America, prior to Spanish Conquest; in Western Europe, before Greeks; in the Near East, before the invention of writing during the third millennium B. C. . Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Prehistory usually refers to the period of human history prior to the advent of writing, which marks the beginning of recorded history. More precisely, prehistory is the period from which no known written records (including later copies) have been preserved. In Egypt, prehistory would end around 3500 BC. In New Guinea, prehistory would end around 1900. Still earlier periods of time are usually known as geological history.
When did prehistory begin? People disagree. Some would begin it with Homo erectus, around 1.5 million years ago. Others would begin it around 40,000 BC, with the Cro-Magnons. If however, human prehistory is defined, as presumably it should be, as the pre-literate history of Homo sapiens sapiens then at least the matter can be resolved in principle, and the recent pace of progress in understanding the evolution of Homo sapiens suggests the answer will not be long in coming. Current best estimates are in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
Prehistory is often subdivided by a three-age system:
- The Stone Ages:
- Paleolithic -- Old Stone Age.
- Epipalaeolithic -- characterised by the use of microliths, not distinguished by all scholars.
- Mesolithic -- Middle Stone Age.
- Neolithic -- Late Stone Age, usually referring to the beginnings of agriculture.
- Chalcolithic or Eneolithic -- mixed stone and metal tools, not a period distinguished by all scholars.
- Bronze Age -- use of copper and/or bronze tools.
- Iron Age -- the Iron Age began around 2200 BC in Turkey and the Caucasus Mountains. It came later to other areas. It didn't come to Polynesia until the coming of the Europeans, between 1500 and 1750.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Prehistory."
Synonym: PrehistoricSynonym: prehistorical (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Oldness | Prime; primitive, primeval, primigenous; paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic; primordial, primordinate; aboriginal; (beginning); diluvian, antediluvian; protohistoric; prehistoric; antebellum, colonial, precolumbian; patriarchal, preadamite; paleocrystic; fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane; archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter. |
The Past | Retrospectively; ere now, before now, till now; hitherto, heretofore; no longer; once, once upon a time; from time immemorial, from prehistoric times; in the memory of man; time out of mind; already, yet, up to this time; ex post facto. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Prehistoric |
| English words defined with "prehistoric": Achaean, Achaian, Aegean, Aegean civilization, Aegean culture, aeolian, affinity, Archaeolithic, archaeologist, archaeology, archeologist, archeology, Aryan ♦ barley, barrow, burial mound ♦ Canis familiaris, Cave dweller, Crannoge, cromlech ♦ dog, dolmen, domestic dog, Dorian ♦ eitchen midden, Elf arrow, Eolian, Equus caballus ♦ grave mound ♦ heavy, horse ♦ Indo-European, Ionian, Isle Royal National Park ♦ kitchen midden ♦ Lake dwellers, lake dwelling, Lake dwellings, lumbering ♦ megalith, megalithic structure, Mesa Verde National Park, midden, Mound Builder ♦ palaeology, paleology, Palstave, phylogenetic relation, pie, pile dwelling, ponderous, protoarchaeology, protoarcheology, Proto-Indo European ♦ Stone Age ♦ Tamil, tumulus. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "prehistoric": Associated records ♦ Cultural resources ♦ DREW ♦ geological climate ♦ Material remains ♦ palaeoclimate, paleoclimate. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Hey! Prehistoric Forest (Tommy Boy; writing credit: Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner.) Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown (Ghost Busters; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd; Harold Ramis) We have since built museums to celebrate the past, and spend decades studying prehistoric lives (Walking with Beasts; writing credit: Kate Bartlett; Jasper James) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Prehistoric Super Salesman (1969) Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) Prehistoric Women (1967) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Approaching the prehistoric Micronesian city of Nan Madol. Credit: Small World. |  | The prehistoric Micronesian city of Nan Madol - Basalt "logs" came from miles away. Credit: Small World. |
 | Remains of prehistoric house site. Credit: Small World. |  | Prehistoric rock carving of what appears to be a sea-bird at Isla Gorgona. Credit: Small World. |
 | The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, containing about 40 miles of the upper San Pedro River, was designated by Congress as a National Conservation Area (NCA) on November 18, 1988. The primary purpose for the designation is to protect and enhance the desert riparian ecosystem, a rare remnant of what was once an extensive network of similar riparian systems throughout the southwest. The NCA contains more than 250 recorded prehistoric and historic sites, including the remnants of a Spanish fort called the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate built in 1780. Credit: Unknown. |  | Bee Burro in a Chacoan Outlier community occupied during the A.D. 900 to 1100 time period. It is tied to Chaco Canyon by a prehistoric road. Credit: Unknown. |
 | Mrs. Tooler-Monde, President of the Fortieth Century club, takes her husband to see the newly restored Prehistoric Monster. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Group of figures made of parier mache which attract passing tourists at Apache Junction, Arizona. These three figures were made to represent three stages in the development of the state, the prehistoric man, the Indian and the prospector. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Superman. "I will now dedicate Prehistoric Park...in my own way!". Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and J. Edgar Hoover as prehistoric men hunting with clubs. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Life, the Universe and Everything | Douglas Adams | He had just had a wonderful idea about how to cope with the terrible lonely isolation, the nightmares, the failure of all his attempts at horticulture, and the sheer futurelessness and futility of his life here on prehistoric Earth, which was that he would go mad. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Senegal | Archaeological findings throughout the area indicate that Senegal was inhabited in prehistoric times. (references) |
France | Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, travel, and invasion. (references) | |
Denmark | The Danes, a homogenous Gothic-Germanic people, have inhabited Denmark since prehistoric times. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Prehistoric" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.03% of the time. "Prehistoric" is used about 378 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 96.03% | 363 | 14,875 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.97% | 15 | 90,616 |
| Total | 100.00% | 378 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "prehistoric": prehistoric age ♦ prehistoric man ♦ prehistoric times. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "prehistoric": prehistoric-looking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "prehistoric"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | prehistorik, parahistorik. (various references) | |
Arabic | قبل التاريخ (prehistory). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | остарял (antiquated, dated, dead, extinct, grown old, hoary, moldy, moss-grown, mouldy, musty, obsolete, old, out of date, outdated, outworn, passe, played out, primitive, rusty, superannuated, worm-eaten), предисторически (primaeval, primitive), допотопен (antediluvian). (various references) | |
Chinese | 史前 (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Czech | prehistorický, pravìký (primeval). (various references) | |
Finnish | historiantakainen, esihistoriallinen. (various references) | |
French | préhistorique (prehistorical). (various references) | |
German | prähistorisch (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Greek | προϊστορικόσ (prehistorical, prohistoric, prohistorical), προϊστορικός (primeval, primordial). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ק"ם "סטורי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | történelem előtti. (various references) | |
Italian | preistorico (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 前史時代 (prehistoric period), 前世界 (prehistoric age). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぜ"しじ い (prehistoric period), ぜ"せかい (prehistoric age, the whole world). (various references) | |
Korean | 사 시대 (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Manx | roie-hendeeagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ehistoricpray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pré-histórico (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Romanian | preistoric. (various references) | |
Russian | доисторический (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | preistorijski. (various references) | |
Spanish | prehistórico (prehistorical). (various references) | |
Swedish | förhistorisk. (various references) | |
Turkish | prehistorik, tarih öncesine ait, tarih öncesi (prehistory). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | старезний (advanced, age-old, ancient, antiquated, antique, decrepit, prehistorical, senile, winterly, wintry), доісторичний (prehistorical). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "prehistoric": prehistorical, prehistorically. (additional references) | |
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"Prehistoric" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: prehistorik, Preistorico. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "prehistoric" (pronounced prē'hi'stô"rik) |
| 8 | -h i' s t ô" r i k | historic. |
| 4 | -ô" r i k | boric, caloric, choric, meteoric. |
| 3 | -r i k | alphanumeric, anthropocentric, atmospheric, Baldric, barbaric, barometric, citric, cleric, concentric, Derrick, dissymmetric, eccentric, econometric, egocentric, electric, esoteric, ethnocentric, euphoric, fabric, gastric, generic, geocentric, geometric, geriatric, gravimetric, hemispheric, hydroelectric, hyperbaric, hysteric, ionospheric, lyric, mercuric, mesenteric, metric, nitric, numeric, obstetric, optometric, parametric, pediatric, photoelectric, pinprick, psychiatric, pyrrhic, rubric, satiric, sophomoric, stearic, stratospheric, sulfuric, tantric, vampiric, vitric. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-h-i-i-o-p-r-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: rectorship. | |
-2 letters: chirpiest, chorister, rhetorics, torchiers. | |
-3 letters: chirpers, chirpier, christie, crispier, heritors, historic, orchitis, periotic, picrites, pierrots, pitchers, pitchier, postiche, potiches, priciest, priories, rescript, rhetoric, scripter, shirtier, sportier, stripier, strophic, torchier, trophies. | |
-4 letters: ceriphs, chirper, chirres, ciphers, cirrose, cithers, coheirs, copiers, copters, corries, crisper, crosier, eristic, erotics, hectors, heriots, heritor, heroics, hipster, hoister, horsier. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-h-i-i-o-p-r-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: directorship, peritrichous. | |
+2 letters: directorships, prehistorical. | |
+3 letters: peritrichously, streptothricin. | |
+4 letters: prehistorically, streptothricins. | |
+5 letters: coproprietorship, neuropsychiatric, petrochemistries. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
