historical

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Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /hɪˈstɒɹɪkəl/
• (America) IPA: /hɪˈstɔːɹɪkəl/

Adjective

historical

1. Of, concerning, or in accordance with recorded history, (particularly) as opposed to legends, myths, and fictions.
   • ante 1475 Higden's Polychronicon, volume I, chapter 5:

     For in the contexte historicalle [Latin: In historico... contextu], the rewle off lyvenge and forme of vertues moralle and the incentiue of manhode ȝiffe grete resplendence thro the diligence of croniclers.

   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.
   1. (literature, art) About history; depicting persons or events from history.
2. Of, concerning, or in accordance with the past generally.
   • 1521, Henry Bradshaw, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge, Ballad 1:

     Sith thou gaue to vs a floure most riall Redolent in cronicles with historicall syght.

   1. (literature, art) Set in the past.
   2. (uncommon) Former, erstwhile; (religious, obsolete) lapsed, nominal.
      • 1886, Jacob Boehme translated by John Ellistone in Works, volume 1, epistle 2, §49, page 39 ↗:

        But concerning some persons of your neighbourhood... their Confession [of Faith] is rather an opinion than a true and sincere earnestness, for all of them are not that which they boast and glory to be; there may be many honest hearts among them; but many of them are only historical and titular, and desire only to show themselves, and to be applauded ...

   3. (grammar) One of various tenses or moods used to tell about past events, historic (tense).
   4. (obsolete, biology) Synonym of hereditary#English|hereditary or evolutionary.
3. Of, concerning, or in accordance with the scholarly discipline of history.

   The Royal Historical Society

   The State Historical Society of Wisconsin

   1. Done in the manner of a historian: written as a development over time or in accordance with the historical method.
      • 2003 June, Denise E. DeLorme & al., "Journalists' Hostility towards Public Relations" in Public Relations Review, volume 23, No. 2:

        ...No studies have investigated the problem’s historic roots. Thus, this paper explores the perspective of “early insiders” through an historical analysis of autobiographies, biographies, and magazine articles written by and about early US newspaper reporters and editors.

   2. (uncommon) Synonym of historic#English|historic: important or likely to be important to history and historians.
4. Forming compound adjectives with the meaning "historical/~" or "historically":

   historical-political

Synonyms

• (see usage note) historic, (obsolete) historial
• (about earlier times) past, bygone, former, old, ancient; see also Thesaurus:past

Antonyms

• (inaccurate accounts of the past) ahistorical, anachronistic; see also Thesaurus:anachronistic
• (now: not in the past) modern, contemporary, present, present-day; see also Thesaurus:present or Thesaurus:contemporary
• (later: not in the past) future, projected, expected; see also Thesaurus:future

Translations

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

Noun

historical (plural historicals)

1. A historical romance.
   • 1999, Anne K. Kaler, Rosemary E. Johnson-Kurek, Romantic Conventions, page 63:

     However, as regular romance readers know, the romance novels that appear on the best-seller lists are not Harlequins at all, but rather historicals and contemporaries, which vary widely from the Harlequin pattern in style, plot, and character.

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