Prehistoric

How to spell prehistoric

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce prehistoric

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prehistoric mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the period of human or natural history before written records existed.

Prehistoric in a sentence

• The museum displays prehistoric tools carved from flint and bone.

• Archaeologists uncovered prehistoric cave paintings deep in the valley.

Where does prehistoric come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word stitches together a Latin prefix and a Greek root. The prefix pre- comes from the Latin prae, meaning 'before' or 'in front of', while the core element traces back to the Greek historia, which originally meant 'inquiry' or 'knowledge gained by investigation' and only later narrowed to the written record of past events we now call history. The compound 'prehistoric' was coined in English in the middle of the nineteenth century, around the 1850s, as geologists and early archaeologists needed a term for the vast stretch of time that came before any written records existed. The same historia root sits inside 'history', 'historian', and 'story', which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle of prehistoric is spelled exactly like the start of 'history'. Because the word joins a clear prefix to a familiar base, the spelling is more regular than it first looks: think pre + historic.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• histor (from Greek historia: inquiry, history)
• -ic (adjective suffix)