"past history" - Word of the Day from the OED

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past history, n.

DRAFT ENTRY Mar. 2008

Brit. /pst hst()ri/, /past hst()ri/, U.S. /pæst hst()ri/  [< PAST adj. + HISTORY n.] 

    1. = HISTORY n. 4b; esp. (in later use) history which is considered no longer relevant, important, or interesting, or which is considered discreditable.
  In earlier use less idiomatic.

1739-40 D. HUME Human Nature IX. 551 Our general knowledge of human nature, our observation of the past history of mankind, our experience of present times; all these causes must induce us to open the door to exceptions. 1776 GIBBON Decline & Fall VII. iii, The past history and the future fate of the empire. 1813 W. HAZLITT in Morning Chron. 13 Nov., Many men of the highest character for learning, occupied exclusively with past history and abstract ideas. 1876 J. GRANT Hist. Burgh & Parish Schools of Scotl. Pref. 5 Mr. Innes..always entered enthusiastically into any proposal calculated to elucidate the past history of his native country 1930 Pacific Affairs 3 144 In this spirit, exception should not be taken by one country to unpleasant past history. 1952 N. NICOLSON Let. 3 Mar. in H. Nicolson Diaries (1968) III. 222 We knew all this past-history already and needn't listen. 1958 P. SHAFFER Five Finger Exercise (1962) 195 Your mother and I didn't see eye-to-eye about sending you to university. But that's past history now. 1965 A. CHRISTIE At Bertram's Hotel i. 13 Bertram's had existed since about 1840, but nobody had taken any interest in tracing its past history. 1990 D. LUCIE Doing Business in Fashion (1991) 273 My problem is not the woman's past history, it is that potential sponsors have seen her background and decided they don't want to be associated with her.

    2. Med. The occurrence of a disease or condition in a person's medical history.

1931 K. LANDSTEINER in Science 17 Apr. 404/1 The reactions, although obtained with the blood of healthy individuals, might have been due to a past history of disease. 1967 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 113 1048/1 A tantalizing finding was a significant association between mental ill health and a past history of concussion and of certain infectious diseases. 2003 Newsday (N.Y.) (Nexis) 3 Jan. A03 He was having heart-related medical attention since he had a past history of heart attacks.

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