history
/ˈhɪs.tə.ɹi/ noun, verb
Forms histories historying historied Hx historie hystorie hystory
- noun The aggregate of past events, both unrecorded and recorded. “The history of mammals stretches back many millions of years.”
- noun The empirical study of past events, as distinct from literature, myth, or scripture; the assessment of notable events. “He teaches Latin American history at the university and publishes books about the Cold War.”
- noun The portion of the past that is known and recorded by this field of study, as opposed to all earlier and unknown times that preceded it. “in all of human history and prehistory”
- noun (countable) A set of events involving an entity. “a long and sordid history”
- noun (countable) A record or narrative description of past events. “I really enjoyed Shakespeare's tragedies more than his histories.”
- noun (countable, medicine) A list of past and continuing medical conditions of an individual or family. “A personal medical history is required for the insurance policy.”
- noun (countable, computing) A record of previous user events, especially of visited web pages in a browser. “I visited a great site yesterday but forgot the URL. Luckily, I didn't clear my history.”
- noun (informal) Something that no longer exists or is no longer relevant. “I told him that if he doesn't get his act together, he's history.”
- verb (obsolete) To narrate or record.
Synonyms
past ages background account chronicle story tale medical history log
Etymology
From Middle English historie, from Old French estoire, estorie (“chronicle, history, story”) (French histoire), from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “learning through research”), from ἱστορέω (historéō, “to research, inquire (and) record”), from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “the knowing, wise one”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Doublet of story and storey.
Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John Gower, Confessio Amantis, which was aimed at an educated audience familiar with French and Latin.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A learning or knowing by inquiry; the knowledge of facts and events, so obtained; hence, a formal statement of such information; a narrative; a description; a written record; as, the history of a patient's case; the history of a legislative bill.
- noun A systematic, written account of events, particularly of those affecting a nation, institution, science, or art, and usually connected with a philosophical explanation of their causes; a true story, as distinguished from a romance; --distinguished also from annals, which relate simply the facts and events of each year, in strict chronological order; from biography, which is the record of an individual's life; and from memoir, which is history composed from personal experience, observation, and memory.
- verb To narrate or record. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [L.historia, Gr. 'istori`a history, information, inquiry, fr. 'istwr, "istwr, knowing, learned, from the root of wit. See Wit, and cf. Story.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “history”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details