Definition of "Recent"

Recent

proper noun
1. (obsolete, geology) The Holocene.
  Quotations
  He [Charles Lyell] ignored Quaternary, a term he never accepted. The Recent addressed the age “tenanted by man,” which at the time barely extended beyond the chronicles of the Bible.
  2012, Lydia Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World, Penguin
adjective
not comparable
1. (obsolete, geology, astronomy) Of the Holocene, particularly pre-21st century.