prehistoric

See also: prehistòric

English

Alternative forms

• pre-historic

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒɹɪk

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

of relating to the epoch before written record

• Arabic: ما قبل التاريخ‎
• Armenian: նախապատմական (hy) (naxapatmakan)
• Asturian: prehistóricu
• Bulgarian: предисторически (bg) (predistoričeski)
• Catalan: prehistòric
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 史前的 (shǐqián de)

• Czech: pravěký (cs) m
• Dutch: prehistorisch (nl)
• Esperanto: prahistoria
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: fyrisøguligur
• Finnish: esihistoriallinen (fi)
• French: préhistorique (fr)
• Galician: prehistórico
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: prähistorisch (de), vorgeschichtlich (de)
• Greek: προϊστορικός (el) (proïstorikós)
• Hebrew: פרהיסטורי‎ (prehistóri)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: történelem előtti (hu)
• Icelandic: forsögulegur (is)
• Ido: prehistoriala (io)
• Indonesian: prasejarah (id)
• Italian: preistorico (it)
• Japanese: 先史 (ja) (せんし, senshi)

• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: тарихқа дейінгі (tarïxqa deyingi), тарихтан бұрынғы (tarïxtan burınğı)
• Khmer: បុរេប្រវត្តិ (km) (po’reeprɑvoat)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: pêşdîrokî (ku)

• Latin: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: предисториски (predistoriski)
• Malay: prasejarah (ms)
• Maltese: preistoriku
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forhistorisk

  Nynorsk: forhistorisk

• Polish: prehistoryczny (pl)
• Portuguese: pré-histórico (pt)
• Romanian: preistoric (ro)
• Russian: доистори́ческий (ru) (doistoríčeskij)
• Scottish Gaelic: ro-eachdraidheil
• Serbo-Croatian: prètpovijēsnī (sh), pràpovijēsnī (sh)
• Spanish: prehistórico (es)
• Swedish: förhistorisk (sv)
• Tagalog: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: rujenavik
• Welsh: cynhanesyddol