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historic

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /hɪˈstɒr.ɪk/, US /hɪˈstɔːr.ɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is probably a back-formation from historical, perhaps influenced by historique,[2] or it is borrowed from Latin historicus,[3][4] from Ancient Greek ἱστορικός (historikós), from historia “narrative, knowing by enquiry”,[4][3] the source of history.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A historian, as a noun: 1611 in the OED, now obsolete.[5] The adjective, of or belonging to history: 1669 in the OED, the 1660s in Etymonline.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Recording past events, the same as historical, is from 1675.[5] The meaning “important in history, noted or celebrated” is from 1794.[2][5] In Latin and Greek grammar the historic tenses are those used for past events (1845).[5] The earliest English adjective was historial (late 14th century, from Late Latin historialis), which meant both “belonging to history” and “of historical importance”.[2]

Timeline

  • 1611 – noun, a historian.[5]
  • 1669 – of history.[5]
  • 1794 – important in history.[2][5]
  • 1845 – the historic tenses.[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Important in history, or likely to be thought important in the future: a historic decision.
  2. Famous or interesting because of its past: a historic house.
  3. (grammar) Of tenses, used for past events.

Word family

  • ahistoric
  • historically
  • historicism
  • historicity
  • historicize
  • nonhistoric
  • prehistoric
  • unhistoric

Usage notes

Historic is now mostly kept for what is important or famous in history, and historical for whatever belongs to or deals with the past (a historical novel), though the two overlap and both have been used in each sense.[6][2] Older British speech treats the h as silent after an, as in an historic occasion.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin