ahistorical

American  

[ey-hi-stawr-i-kuhl, -stor-i-kuhl] / ˌeɪ hɪˈstɔr ɪ kəl, -ˈstɒr ɪ kəl /

Also ahistoric

adjective

1. without concern for history or historical development; indifferent to tradition.

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ahistorical British  

/ ˌeɪhɪsˈtɒrɪkəl /

adjective

1. not related to history; not historical

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Etymology

Origin of ahistorical

First recorded in 1925–30; a- ⁶ + historical

Explanation

Something that's ahistorical completely ignores or disregards the history or tradition that came before it. An ahistorical review of a movie would leave out any references to influential films and directors. An ahistorical political outlook can be misguided or even dangerous, because it doesn't take the lessons of the past into account. People who are nostalgic about the past are often taking an ahistorical perspective, choosing not to think about advances in civil and human rights through history. The word ahistorical dates from 1950, combining a, "not," and historical, "concerning past events."

Example Sentences

Finally, in 2019, after its latest makeover, the Museum of Modern Art abandoned the traditional, linear narrative in favor of an eclectic, ahistorical installation of artists and artworks.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

At a time when instruction in biology can be increasingly reductive and ahistorical, paleontologists teach us the astonishing breadth of past and present life on Earth and the long history that led to today’s biosphere.

From Scientific American • Aug. 30, 2023

That there’s no acknowledgment of any of this, in a show dealing with cops and a group like the Phalanx, is ahistorical and downright bizarre.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 16, 2023

Justice Kavanaugh wrote a dissenting opinion that “did an admirable job explaining the totally ahistorical and atextual nature” of Alito’s argument, Mark Joseph Stern writes.

From Slate • May 25, 2023

The boxlike room, stripped of all embellishment or parlor fussiness, a room that wished to be timeless or ahistorical, and there, in the middle of it, my deeply historical, timeworn grandmother.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides