historicus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [hɪsˈtɔ.rɪ.kʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [isˈtɔː.ri.kus]^[1]

Forms

historicus (feminine historica, neuter historicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἱστορικός (historikós, “exact, historical”), from Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historía, “inquiry, history”); it is also felt as historia with the suffix -icus.^[2][1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Varro, of things based on inquiry into records.^[2] Köbler's first source is Cicero.^[3] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant based on inquiry into records, as Varro's recorded instances, and proper to history or historical writing, as Cicero's genus historicum and sermō historicus “historical style”.^[2][5] As a noun it meant a historian, a researcher, as in Cicero.^[2][3]

In Medieval Latin it meant historical, founded on fact, literal, as opposed to the spiritual or allegorical sense of Scripture.^[6] It survives in Italian storico, French historique and Spanish histórico.^[1] English historical came in the early 15th century, and English historic in the 1660s.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of recorded instances.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of historical style and of historians.^[5][3]
• early 15th century – English historical is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Based on records; historical.^[2]
2. Proper to history or historical writing.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Literal (of the sense of Scripture).^[6]

Noun

1. A historian; a researcher.^[2]

Related words

• historia
• English historic
• English historical

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill