Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

forehistory

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: fore-his-to-ry
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

4

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The period of history preceding a given time or event; prior history.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

""[…] On this territory of dawning forehistory the prophetic narrator has operated with great freedom.""
"Tregarvon knew nothing of this man's antecedents; of the forehistory of any of them, for that matter."
"Reflecting a virtual correspondence between separate moments in time, and characteristically between the "forehistory" and "afterhistory" of a particular historical phenomenon (Baudelaire, for example, has a forehistory in medieval allegory, an afterhistory in Jugendstil), the Arcades passage brings to light for the present — in a flash of legibility — a "dialectical image," something at once documentary and metaphysical."
"Tolkien's lengthened sense of forehistory is concomitant with this dilation."

Etymology

From fore- + history.

Word Breakdown

Prefix: fore-

Usage

Inflected Forms

forehistories (plural)

Antonyms

afterhistory

Questions

What does forehistory mean?: The period of history preceding a given time or event; prior history.
Where does forehistory come from?: From fore- + history.

How to pronounce forehistory

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