historia

Forms

historia f (plural historias)^[1] Old Spanish usually wrote the word estoria, a half-popular form that is the normal one in Alfonso X, the Libro de Alexandre and Juan Ruiz;^[2][3] historia spread at the end of the Middle Ages and is the only form in Nebrija.^[4] Medieval texts also have istoria, ystoria, hystoria and hestoria.^[2][3] Estoria “tale” still lives in Asturian.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin historia (“inquiry; account of past events”), taken over at an early date.^[4][5][6][1] The common medieval form estoria is semi-popular, while the modern spelling follows the Latin.^[4]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historía, “inquiry, research; narrative”),^[4][1] itself derived from ἱστορέω (historéō, “to inquire”) and ultimately from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “one who knows, expert; witness”).^[1][7] Corominas puts this noun beside οἶδα (oîda, “I know”).^[4][5] Boeotian has the form ϝίστωρ (wístōr),^[7] and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *wéydtōr (“knower”), from the root *weyd- (“to see”).^[1][8]

The same Latin word gave French histoire, first as istorie in the early 12th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the Liber Regum (1194–1211, in a copy of the first quarter of the 13th century): E dize en la estoria que desque fo criado el cielo “and it says in the history that after the sky was created”.^[10] Corominas and the BDELC date the word to Berceo (1220–1250), who uses both estoria and historia for the narrative of a saint's life or of Scripture.^[4][5][10] The Tentative Dictionary glosses the medieval word as “tale, account”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both a record of real events and a tale, and Corominas notes that it often means “story, imaginative narrative” in the Middle Ages.^[4] Alfonso X's General estoria already uses natural estoria for Pliny's “natural history”.^[11]

Covarrubias (1611) defines it strictly as a narrative of what the author saw himself, and more loosely as any account, such as a history of animals or plants.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds the senses “fable, tangle” and, in painting, a picture or tapestry of a historical scene.^[13] The 1817 edition records the colloquial phrase dejarse de historias “stop beating about the bush”,^[14] and in 1884 the Academy first separated the history of peoples from the history of any other human activity.^[15]

Today the DLE lists the discipline, the work of a historian, a person's life story, an invented story and, colloquially, a lie, an excuse or gossip, usually in the plural.^[6][16] Historia clínica is a patient's medical record.^[6]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – estoria in the Liber Regum (in an early 13th-century copy).^[10]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses estoria and historia; the first record for Corominas.^[4][5]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria speaks of Pliny's natural estoria.^[11]
• c. 1295 – estoriador “historian”, in the Estoria de España.^[4][5]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary writes istoria.^[17]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias distinguishes history in the strict sense from any narrative.^[12]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as an artful, continuous and true account of memorable events.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records dejarse de historias.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. historia”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An account of past events worth remembering, public or private; history.^[6][1]
2. The discipline that studies and narrates the past in order: Estudia historia en la universidad.^[6][1]
3. A historical work by a particular author: la historia de Heródoto.^[6]
4. The whole of the events of a people or nation: la historia de México.^[6][16]
5. The events of someone's life or of part of it.^[6][1]
6. An account of any adventure or happening; a story, also an invented one.^[6][1]
7. (colloquial, usually plural) A lie or pretext; gossip, a tangle: ¡Déjate de historias!^[6][16]
8. (painting) A picture or tapestry showing a historical or legendary scene.^[6][13]
9. historia clínica: a patient's medical record.^[6]

Word family

• historiar
• historiador
• historial
• prehistoria
• protohistoria
• intrahistoria
• hacer historia

Related words

• histórico
• historieta
• historiografía
• Latin historia
• French histoire

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. historia
3. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 244
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 370
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. historia
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. historia
7. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ἵστωρ
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 354
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. histoire
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. historia
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. historia
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 984
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 162
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 472
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 570
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. historia
17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. historia
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. historia