1.
[syn: prehistoric, prehistorical]
2. of or relating to times before written history;
- Example: "prehistoric archeology"
3. no longer fashionable;
- Example: "my mother has these prehistoric ideas about proper clothes"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Prehistoric \Pre`his*tor"ic\, a.
Of or pertaining to a period before written history begins;
as, the prehistoric ages; prehistoric man.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
prehistoric
adj 1: belonging to or existing in times before recorded
history; "prehistoric settlements"; "prehistoric peoples"
[syn: prehistoric, prehistorical]
2: of or relating to times before written history; "prehistoric
archeology"
3: no longer fashionable; "my mother has these prehistoric ideas
about proper clothes"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
44 Moby Thesaurus words for "prehistoric":
aboriginal, ancestral, ancient, antediluvian, antepatriarchal,
antiquated, atavistic, autochthonous, earliest, early, erstwhile,
fore, former, fossil, humanoid, immemorial, late, old,
old-fashioned, olden, once, onetime, passe, past, patriarchal,
preadamite, preglacial, prehuman, previous, primal, prime,
primeval, primitive, primogenial, primoprimitive, primordial,
prior, pristine, protohistoric, protohuman, quondam, recent,
sometime, then
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
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