Skip to main content
preclassical

preclassical

8.1
Belonging to the time before the classical era in art, music, or literature
  • adjective
  • /priːˈklæsɪkəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : preclásico
  • Its preclassical radicalism must have startled its contemporary viewers, all the more so because it was accompanied by two major technical innovations: a spectacular enhancement of optical and tactile effects and an unprecedented narrative structure.

Examples

  • Rolf Kuehni's Color Space and Its Divisions is an inclusive mosaic of the history of color-order systems; that is, useful arrangements of color, from the time of the preclassical Greeks to the present.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The preclassical era laid the groundwork for the artistic movements that followed in the renaissance.

  • Many of the pottery styles from ancient cultures show influences from preclassical design traditions.

  • In studying literature, the preclassical works often reflect societal norms that differed greatly from modern times.

Synonyms

preclassic
vspreclassical
  • Specialized
8.4

About the time before a culture's classical period

is broader, applying to that earlier period across art, music, literature, and history

How Early

prehistoric
47 5.2
archaic
34 9.9
preclassical
  • Specialized
8.1
classical
123 3.8
postclassical
  • Specialized
8.0

Surface Forms

preclassical positive

Morphology

preclassical = classical (transparent) = pre + classic + al

The meaning is straightforwardly 'before the classical period' from the adjective 'classical' with the time prefix 'pre-'.

Etymology

The word preclassical is made of pre- meaning 'before' and classical meaning the well-known 'classical' era or style, so it describes art, music, or writing that comes before that period. A helpful way to remember pre- is to see it in common words like preview or preheat, where it also means 'before'.