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

"This wasn't a missing chapter in New Zealand's ancient history, it was a missing volume."

From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026

To many of the skaters today, the 1990s might as well be ancient history.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

Bostock felt like ancient history on Tuesday morning, when the court heard oral argument in Little v.

From Slate • Jan. 14, 2026

"POV: You wake up in Pompeii on eruption day" and "POV: You wake up as Queen Cleopatra" are some of his most popular titles, taking viewers through a 30-second-long fictionalised day in ancient history.

From BBC • Dec. 26, 2025

I wasn’t that great on ancient history, but I was pretty sure the Roman Empire never made it as far as Long Island.

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan