Historic

How to spell historic

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce historic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does historic mean?

1. adjectiveFamous or important enough to have a lasting place in history; momentous.

Historic in a sentence

• The treaty was a historic moment for both nations.

• The museum stands on a historic site where the battle was fought.

Where does historic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek historia, which originally meant 'inquiry' or 'knowledge gained through investigation', built on histor, a 'learned man' or one who knows. The Greeks used it for any narrative of things found out, and Latin took it over as historicus, meaning 'of or belonging to history'. English absorbed the adjective in the early 1600s, partly through the French historique, to describe something memorable enough to belong to the record of the past. Over time English split two close cousins apart: 'historic' came to mean famous or momentous, while 'historical' came to mean simply relating to history, and that subtle difference is the trap writers wrestle with rather than the spelling itself. The same historia root still powers everyday relatives like 'story' and 'history'.

How the word is built

• histor- (from Greek historia: inquiry, knowledge gained by investigation)
• -ic (adjective suffix)