Definition of "prehistory"

prehistory

noun
countable and uncountable, plural prehistories
1. The time before written records in any area of the world; the events and conditions of those times.
2. The study of those times.
3. (humorous, hyperbolic) Any past time (even recent) treated as such a distant, unknowable era.
  Quotations
  I was a town boy through and through. The country belonged to a vague pre-history.
  1984, Shiva Naipaul, Beyond the Dragon's Mouth, page 25
4. (often as pre-history) The history leading up to some event, condition, etc.
  Quotations
  Psychologists... are mostly bad historians, inventing—as Freud has done—their pre-history to suit their theories.
  1931 July 25, Time & Tide, page 893