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