historic

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Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /(h)ɪˈstɒɹɪk/
• (America) IPA: /(h)ɪˈstɔːɹɪk/

Adjective

historic

1. Very important; noteworthy: having importance or significance in history.

   A historic opportunity

   July 4, 1776, is a historic date. A great deal of historical research has been done on the events leading up to that day.

   The historical works of Lord Macaulay and Edward Gibbon are in and of themselves historic.

2. Old-fashioned, untouched by modernity.
   • 1756 August, Horace Walpole, letter republished in Private Correspondence (1820), Vol. II, No. 1:

     Sights are thick sown in the counties of York and Nottingham: the former is more historic.

3. (now uncommon) Synonym of historical#English|historical: of, concerning, or in accordance with recorded history or the past generally (See usage notes.)
4. (grammar) Various grammatical tenses and moods specially used in retelling past events.

   The historic tenses include the imperfect, the pluperfect, and the future perfect.

Synonyms

• (very important) important, notable, significant, landmark, momentous, groundbreaking; see also Thesaurus:important
• (old-fashioned) dated, old-fangled, outdated
• (historical) bygone, foregone; see also Thesaurus:past

Antonyms

• unhistoric

Translations

• French: historique
• German: historisch, geschichtsträchtig
• Italian: storico, storica
• Portuguese: histórico
• Russian: истори́ческий
• Spanish: histórico

Noun

historic (plural historics)

1. (obsolete) A history, a non-fiction account of the past.
   • 1566, William Painter, The Palace of Pleasure Beautified, Vol. I, Ch. XI:

     Before the beginnyng of this historic, I haue thought good by waie of a Proeme, to introduce the wordes of an excellent writer called Lodouicus Caelius Rhodoginus.

2. (obsolete) A historian.

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