ANCIENT HISTORY Definition & Meaning

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ancient history

noun

the study or a course of study of history before the end of the Western Roman Empire a.d. 476.
information or an event of the recent past that is common knowledge or is no longer pertinent:
Last week's news is ancient history.
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.

ancient history

noun

the history of the ancient world from the earliest known civilizations to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 a.d
informal.
a recent event or fact sufficiently familiar to have lost its pertinence

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of ancient history¹

First recorded in 1585–95

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Idioms and Phrases

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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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

It comes after Cardiff University confirmed the cost-cutting proposals, which could also see course closures and department mergers in subjects including nursing, modern languages, religion and theology, music, and ancient history.

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Indeed, the pathogen seems like ancient history — but as recent developments indicate, tuberculosis isn’t done with us yet.

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The 115 charges relates to the period 2009-2018, so that, to a certain extent, is ancient history.

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Those first seasons are ancient history, of course; the original cast are in their 70s or 80s, or have passed on.

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Yet scientists hypothesized that although Venus is likely uninhabitable today, it may have been hospitable in its ancient history.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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