| 释义 |
prehistory|priːˈhɪstərɪ|
[f. pre- + history, after prehistoric.]
a. The account of events or conditions prior to written or recorded history; hence, such events or facts, or the period when they occurred; prehistoric matters or times.
1871Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 401 The history and pre-history of man take their proper places in the general scheme of knowledge. 1888Times 3 Oct. 8/1 The existence of the Pelasgi as a distinct and identifiable race and element in Italian or Greek history, or rather pre-history. 1902Nature 30 Jan. 299/2 The clever etchings on bone and ivory of the cave-dwellers of Western Europe..are well known to all who interest themselves in the pre-history of man.
b. transf. Events or conditions leading up to a particular event, period, etc.
1931N. Mitchison in Time & Tide 25 July 893/1 Psychologists have come nearer to discovering its causes [sc. the causes of unhappiness] than politicians have, but they are mostly bad historians, inventing—as Freud has done—their pre-history to suit their theories. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Dec. 746/5 The pre-history of the Civil War will not be found in the new position of the mercantile and industrial classes. 1960K. Amis New Maps of Hell (1961) i. 17 The prehistory of science fiction, up until 1914 or later, is admittedly as much British as American. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia X. 121/1 The latter third of the 19th century was a crucial point in the prehistory of jazz. 1977N.Y. Rev. Bks. 27 Oct. 40/2 That is why the post⁓history of a work, the tradition it created, is as indispensable to the critic as its pre-history, its sources and the tradition it came from. |