History

How to spell history

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce history

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does history mean?

1. nounThe study or record of past events, or the past considered as a whole.
2. nounA documented record of someone's or something's past circumstances, such as in medicine or employment.

History in a sentence

• She studied ancient history at university for three years.

• The doctor reviewed her medical history before prescribing anything.

• The old town has a long and fascinating history behind it.

• A clean credit history helped him secure the mortgage.

Where does history come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word travels back to the ancient Greek historia, which literally meant 'inquiry' or 'knowledge gained through investigation', and behind it stood histor, 'a learned or wise person, one who knows'. The Greeks used it for any systematic account that grew out of asking questions and gathering facts, which is why the historian Herodotus titled his great work the Historiai. Latin took the word over as historia, narrowing it toward a narrative of past events, and from there it passed into Old French as estoire and istorie before reaching Middle English in the 1300s. For a long time 'history' and 'story' were barely distinguished, since both sprang from the same root, and only later did English split them into the factual record on one side and the entertaining tale on the other. The silent first 'h' and the unstressed middle vowel of his-TOR-y are the spots that occasionally trip writers up.

How the word is built

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