prehistory

Definition

The time before written records in any area of the world; the events and conditions of those times.

Etymology

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

Example Sentences

• "“We don’t find evidence for that sort of thing anywhere in prehistory.”"
• "I was a town boy through and through. The country belonged to a vague pre-history."
• "Psychologists... are mostly bad historians, inventing—as Freud has done—their pre-history to suit their theories."

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