ancient history

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.

ancient history

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of ancient history¹

First recorded in 1585–95

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.

Example Sentences

It swings from one extreme to another, matching Coppola’s grandiose gestures toward futurism, ancient history, symbolism, theatrical performance — and, at the heart of it all, love.

From Los Angeles Times

“The stuff I’ll be asking you about is all ancient history,” he says.

From Salon

Yet all of that is, quite literally, ancient history.

From Salon

A little more than 16 months later, the questions about the future feel like ancient history.

From Los Angeles Times

“People go to Europe to see the ruins of early empires, but they don’t know about the ancient history of our region, and native plants can provide a context for that.”

From Los Angeles Times