Etymologically
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historicus

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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]

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