life historyn.
/ˈlʌɪf ˌhɪst(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈlaɪf ˌhɪst(ə)ri/ 1. The history or narrative of a person's life; a life story.
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1848 J. S. Smith Mirabeau iii. vii. 145 Madame de Nehra's account of their return to Paris..is so simply graphic, and gives so many characteristics of Mirabeau, that no life-history of his can well be complete without it.
1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxvi. 393 Those street hawkers..will relate their checkered life-histories with great eagerness.
1909 ‘M. Twain’ Is Shakespeare Dead? 141 Philosophers, burglars..surgeons—you can get the life-histories of all of them but one [sc. Shakespeare].
1927 R. Fry Let. 31 Aug. (1972) II. 609 The old man..poured out his whole life-history.
1935 B. Malinowski Coral Gardens II. vi. 232 The development of speech within the life history of the individual.
1956 A. L. George & J. L. George Woodrow Wilson 319 Important episodes and actions in the life history are selected.
1991 D. Purcell Place of Stones (1992) v. 175 Both men quizzed her gently, eliciting her life history. Not all of it—Molly told them only the bare bones.
2. The life cycle of an individual organism or of a species. Also: the duration of existence of an inanimate object, or the stages of this (cf. life n. 10).
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > life cycle
life cycle1855
life history1856
the world > life > biology > study > [noun] > natural history > work of
Physiologeta1300
history1534
natural history1534
life cycle1855
life history1856
nature notes1890
1856 W. B. Carpenter Microscope vi. 251 The life-history of one of these Unicellular Plants, in its most simple form, can scarcely be better exemplified than in the Palmoglœa macrococca.
1864 T. S. Cobbold Entozoa viii. 105 Every cestode passes through several distinct phases during its life-history.
1873 Monthly Microsc. Jrnl. 10 53 (title) Researches on the life history of a cercomonad.
1879 W. H. Dallinger in Sci. Lect. for People (Ser. 10) 141 We were able in the course of four years' steady work to complete the life history of six distinct forms.
1920 Discovery Apr. 111/2 The average value of the uranium present during the life-history of the mineral.
1962 Sci. Surv. 3 70 Astrophysicists—those who apply physics to astronomical problems—have provided a coherent account of the life history of the stars.
1978 Science 3 Nov. 521/3 Precise measurements of such parameters and of other features of the life history of great whales..are now possible through radio tagging.
2002 Connecticut Wildlife Mar.–Apr. 9/2 The Wildlife Division has published an eight-page fact sheet on the eastern bluebird which contains information about the life history of the bluebird.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1848