| the period in the history of humankind, preceding the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and marked by the use of stone implements and weapons: subdivided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods. |
| Stone Age n.
|
A period encompassing all of human history, perhaps several million years, before the Bronze Age. In the Stone Age, people learned to make and use stone tools and weapons.
Stone Age jargon
In computer folklore, an ill-defined period from ENIAC (ca. 1943) to the mid-1950s; the great age of electromechanical dinosaurs. Sometimes used for the entire period up to 1960-61 (see Iron Age); however, it is more descriptive to characterise the latter period in terms of a "Bronze Age" era of transistor-logic, pre-ferrite core memory machines with drum or CRT mass storage (as opposed to just mercury delay lines and/or relays).
More generally, the term is used pejoratively for ancient hardware or software, even by survivors from the Stone Age.
[The Jargon File]
(2003-09-27)
