Prehistoric means belonging to the time before written records. Prehistoric tools, a prehistoric site, prehistoric animals.
The line moves from place to place, because it depends on when writing arrived rather than on any date — Egypt leaves prehistory thousands of years before northern Europe does. Used of a person or an attitude, prehistoric is an insult meaning hopelessly out of date.
1adjectiveprehistoricBelonging to the time before written records.
“The cave walls are covered in prehistoric paintings of animals.”
prehistoric is a period.
Pre-, before, plus historic. The word was coined in the nineteenth century, when the study of the period began in earnest.
Latin
historicus
English
historic
English, today
prehistoric
From pre- + historic. From pre + historic, q.v., similar to slightly earlier ante-historic. historic comes from Latin historicus. From Latin historicus (“historical”), from Ancient Greek ἱστορικός (“exact; historical”). Cognate with French historique. by surface analysis, history + -ic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA