| 释义 |
prehistoric, a.|priːhɪˈstɒrɪk|
[f. pre- B. 1 + historic a. So F. préhistorique.]
a. Of, belonging to, or existing in the period antecedent to history, or to the first historical accounts of a people. prehistoric archæology: the archæology of the prehistoric period.
1851D. Wilson (title) The Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland. Ibid. ix, The prehistoric races of Northern Europe. 1860W. G. Clark in Vac. Tour. 38 This tufa has been deposited..by some pre-historic volcano. 1863D. Wilson Archæol. & Prehist. Annals Scotl. (ed. 2) I. Pref. 14 The application of the term Prehistoric—introduced, if I mistake not, for the first time in this work. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 8 Homer and Troy lie far back in the prehistoric period. 1894H. B. Swete Apostles' Creed ii. 29 Evidence..to show that about the middle of the third century a prehistoric and premundane Sonship was ascribed by the majority of believers to Jesus Christ. 1910Encycl. Brit. I. 344/2 The more serious and cautious students of prehistoric archaeology. 1932A. R. Radcliffe-Brown in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1931 (Centenary Meeting) 143 Another field that lies within the general field of Anthropology as now organised is that of Prehistoric Archæology. 1935Chambers's Encycl. I. 387/1 Prehistoric archæology has no dates. 1948A. L. Kroeber Anthropol. (rev. ed.) xix. 843 How about relations to history—with which prehistoric archaeology so obviously intergrades that no real line of demarcation can be drawn? 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia II. 838/1 Childe was professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.
b. transf. and fig. (chiefly joc.).
1859Geo. Eliot Let. 17 Aug. (1954) III. 133 Pug developes new charms... I think, in the pre-historic period of his existence, before he came to me, he had led a sort of Caspar Hauser life, shut up in a kennel in Bethnal Green. 1886Kipling Departm. Ditties (1888) 15 Delilah Aberyswith was a lady..With..a little house in Simla in the Prehistoric Days. 1886‘Mark Twain’ Speeches (1910) 185, I can see that printing-office of prehistoric times yet, with its horse bills on the walls. 1924J. Buchan Three Hostages vii. 105, I obediently sampled an old hock, an older port, and a most pre-historic brandy. 1968M. Bragg Without City Wall x. 116 It's your success story which is jaded... It's been going on for centuries... Prehistoric! 1979Guardian 12 June 23/2 Red and blue looked exactly the same to anyone watching on prehistoric black and white [television].
So prehiˈstorical a., prehistoric; hence prehiˈstorically adv., in prehistoric times.
1862Parthenon 26 July 393 From a ‘prehistorical’ period down to the Conquest of Tamerlane (a.d. 1398). 1863Lyell Antiq. Man 11 Another class of memorials..has thrown light on the pre-historical age. 1895Edin. Rev. July 137 The stream of communication set in prehistorically. 1974Verbatim Dec. 1/1 Sulfur, iron,..and lead..were known to some peoples prehistorically. 1975Nature 22 May 355/1 Wilkinson argues that 20th century studies on musk ox behaviour can be extrapolated back to predict the ways in which musk oxen could have been exploited prehistorically. |