ancient history

American  

noun

1. the study or a course of study of history before the end of the Western Roman Empire a.d. 476.

2. information or an event of the recent past that is common knowledge or is no longer pertinent.

   Last week's news is ancient history.

3. an event, as in a person's life, that occurred in the remote past and has no practical relationship with the present.

   She was my best friend in high school, but that's ancient history now.

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ancient history British  

noun

1. the history of the ancient world from the earliest known civilizations to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 _a.d

2. informal a recent event or fact sufficiently familiar to have lost its pertinence

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ancient history Idioms  

1. A past event, as in She's talking about her sea voyage, but that's ancient history, or And then there was his divorce, but you don't want to hear ancient history. This hyperbolic idiom transfers the field of ancient history to a much-repeated tale.

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Etymology

Origin of ancient history

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

According to the Royal & Ancient history, the famed and St Andrews-born Old Tom Morris came south to watch that event, then wound up playing even at age almost 73.

From Washington Post • Jul. 14, 2021

Ancient history, modern meance Mount St. Helens has a history of eruption and dormacny that dates back at least 40,000 years.

From Time Magazine Archive

Odds of winning: 3 to 2 Ancient history often seems like a balkanized realm of distinct cultures, each frozen in their own distinct moment.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ancient history, being confined to the exploits of a single hero or monarch, or the rise of a particular city, could afford to be graphic, detailed, and consequently interesting.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, No. 359, September 1845 by Various

Ancient history is obscure through want of documents.

From Bouvard and Pécuchet A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life by Flaubert, Gustave