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historical

Etymology and origin of the English word historical

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1425
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (ἱστορικός)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /hɪˈstɒɹɪkəl/ (UK); /hɪˈstɔɹɪkəl/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin historicus (“of history, historical”) and -al,[2][3] from Ancient Greek ἱστορικός (historikós, “historical; of or for inquiry; exact”),[2][3] from ἱστορία (historía, “inquiry, narrative, history”).[2][3] It is related to history and historic.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Of or pertaining to history, conveying information from the past”: early 15th century in Etymonline;[2] the OED's first record is about 1513.[5]

Semantic evolution

“Narrated in history”, as opposed to fiction or legend, is from 1843.[2][5] Of a treatise or writer dealing with history it is from 1590,[5] and of an artist or painting depicting historical events from 1658.[5] The historical method, studying a thing through its history, is from 1843.[5] In the sense “celebrated in history” (1834) it has been largely replaced by historic,[5] and the earliest adjective in English was historial (late 14th century).[2]

Timeline

  • early 15th century – of history.[2]
  • 1590 – dealing with history.[5]
  • 1658 – of history painting.[5]
  • 1843 – as opposed to legend.[2][5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to history.
  2. Based on or concerned with events in history: a historical novel.
  3. Used in the past: historical costumes.
  4. Important or famous in history; historic.
  5. In linguistics, diachronic.

Word family

  • historically
  • historicalness
  • ahistorical
  • antihistorical
  • sociohistorical
  • superhistorical
  • nonhistorical
  • pseudohistorical

Usage notes

Historic and historical overlap, but historic usually means important in history (a historic voyage) and historical whatever existed in the past or concerns its study (a historical novel), though the two are often interchangeable.[6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ 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
Cite this entry

“Historical.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/historical. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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