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historical, a. (n.)|hɪˈstɒrɪkəl|
[f. L. historic-us (see prec.) + -al1.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or pertaining to history; of the nature or character of history, constituting history; following or in accordance with history.
1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 101 b, The corporall [restoryng of Israel] may be called hystoricall, and was performed by Cyrus. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxviii. §2 Setting downe with historicall breuitie what was spoken. 1614Raleigh Hist. World iii. ii. §3 (R.) The bulk and gross of his narration was founded upon mere historical truth. 1743J. Morris Serm. iii. 86 Historical and moral evidence is not indeed of the same nature with mathematical demonstration. 1816Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 300 It is not consistent with historical dignity..to notice such a trifle as a massacre of..unbelievers. 1884(title) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. 1937A. Huxley Ends & Means vii. 66 One word is common to all the dictatorial vocabularies and is used for purposes of justification and rationalization by Fascists, Nazis and Communists alike. That word is ‘historical’. Ibid. 67 The dictatorship of the proletariat is an ‘historical necessity’. The violence of Communists is justified because..it is being used to forward an ineluctable ‘historical’ process. 1964S. Bellow Herzog (1965) 99 You must sacrifice your poor, squawking, niggardly individuality..to historical necessity.
b. spec. Of, pertaining to, of the nature of history as opposed to fiction or legend.
1843Knight Shaks. i. x. 137 The notion..that nothing ought to be presented upon the stage but what was an historical fact. 1871Freeman Hist. Ess. Ser. i. i. 29 The fact that his [Roland's] famous legendary death is a very easy perversion of his historical death. 1875J. S. Stuart-Glennie in Encycl. Brit. II. 651/2 The scepticism..as to the existence of an historical Arthur. 1877Dowden Primer Shaks. vi. §15. 97 This historical Oldcastle is better known as Lord Cobham.
2. a. Relating to or concerned with history or historical events.
† historical faith: that concerned only with historical facts; intellectual belief or assent, as distinct from faith that is practically operative on conduct: cf. faith 3 b.
c1513Bradshaw's St. Werburge Ball. to Author 18 Sith thou gaue to vs a floure most riall Redolent in cronicles with historicall syght. c1530Tindale Wks. 267 (R.) The historicall fayth hangeth of the truth and honestie of the teller, or of the common fame and consent of many. 1531― Expos. 1 John (1537) 12 The fyrst..is called an hystoricall fayth and belefe. c1645Howell Lett. (1655) II. x. 18. 339 The Prince of darknesse himself and all the cacodæmons by an historicall faith believe ther is a God. a1699W. Bates Div. Medit. ix. (R.), So many have an historical knowledge, yet because they are not united to Christ, they receive no benefit. 1865Mozley Mirac. i. 2 By the historical imagination I mean the habit of realizing past time, of putting history before ourselves in such a light that the persons and events..are seen as once-living persons and once-present events.
†b. transf. Characterized by ‘historical faith’.
1649J. Ellistone tr. Behmen's Ep. 29 There may be many honest hearts among them; but many of them are onely Historicall, and Titular. a1718Penn Life Wks. 1726 I. 156 The Carnal, Fleshly, and Historical Christian of the Outward Courts.
c. historical method, a method of investigation in which the history of the object is studied.
1843Mill Logic II. vi. x. (1856) 498 Of the Inverse Deductive, or Historical Method. Ibid. 517 His [Comte's] work is hitherto the only known example of the study of social phenomena according to this conception of the Historical Method. 1889Fowler Induct. Log. (ed. 5) 204 A very important application of the Method of Concomitant Variations is what is now commonly known as the Historical Method. 1891Edgeworth in Econ. Jrnl. I. 633 The historical method..defined by..Prof. Ashley as ‘direct observation, and generalization from facts past or present’.
d. Related to or connected with history; considered from the historian's point of view; belonging to the past.
1881E. A. Freeman Hist. Geogr. Europe I. i. 2 It is with political divisions that historical geography has to deal in the first place. 1894G. A. Smith (title) The historical geography of the Holy Land. 1923L. D. Stamp Introd. Stratigr. i. 1 Stratigraphy is another name for Historical Geology. 1924O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. ii. 31 Descriptive linguistics can never be rendered superfluous by historical linguistics. 1933Amer. Speech VIII. iii. 6/2 It is the paradox of linguistic geography that a method of research strictly limited to contemporary speech has proved to be the means of revitalizing the study of historical linguistics. 1964R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. 5 Historical linguistics is the study of the developments in languages in the course of time.
3. a. Dealing with history, treating of history, as a historical treatise or historic writer; using history as its basis, as a historical play, novel, etc.
1590Spenser F.Q. Pref., The Methode of a Poet historical is not such, as of an Historiographer. 1615J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. 135 Considering our negligence of historicall Poems. 1780Von Troil Iceland p. viii, The grossest errors that ever disgraced the historical page. 1816Jane Austen Let. 1 Apr. (1952) 452, I am fully sensible that an historical romance, founded on the House of Saxe Cobourg, might be much more to the purpose of profit or popularity. 1826Blackw. Edin. Mag. XX. 52/1 These historical novels may operate advantageously on the mind. 1827Lytton Pelham ii, She had read all the historical romances of the day. 1871Froude in Devon. Assoc. Trans. IV. 38 The most perfect English history which exists is to be found..in the historical plays of Shakespeare. 1874Geo. Eliot Legend of Jubal 193 Imagination... Aiming at fiction called historical. 1876S. A. Brooke Primer Eng. Lit. vii. §124. 130 In..such tales as Kenilworth and Quentin Durward, he [Scott] created the Historical Novel. Ibid. §125. 133 In our own day, a critical historical school has arisen, of which Mr. Freeman and Professor Stubbs are the leaders. 1881Athenæum 30 July 147/1 The veteran historical writer Kostomarof. 1886Freeman Methods Hist. Study Pref. 4 It is against this state of things..that a historical Professor at Oxford has to fight. a1899Mod. The author of numerous historical works. 1939O. Lancaster Homes Sweet Homes 18 The dashing cloak-flinging figure of historical fiction. 1951Observer 28 Jan. 7/4 Philip Woodruff's Colonel of Dragoons..a very model of what historical fiction ought to be. 1972Guardian 28 Mar. 12/5 The movie..is..a great deal more than a decently-handled historical pageant.
b. Of an artist or work of art: Representing history; depicting or describing historical events.
1658W. Sanderson Graphice 32 Three sorts of Painting; Prospective (or Landskip,) Historicall, and Life. 1715J. Richardson Theory Paint. 56 Every Historical Picture is a Representation of one single point of Time. 1768W. Gilpin Ess. Prints 92 The best of his historical prints. 1872Ruskin Eagle's Nest §210 The function of historical painting..is to record of man what has been best in his acts and way of life, and fairest in his form.
4. Celebrated or noted in history; = historic 2 (which is now the usual word).
1834Medwin Angler in Wales I. 25 It has become an historical fact..that ‘Childe Harold’ and the ‘Bard of Memory’ met at Pisa. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 10 It is the old historical lands of Europe that the lover of history longs to explore. 1857C. M. Yonge Landmarks Hist., Mod. v. iii. (1865) 388 [Fleury] was seventy-three years old, feeble, and cautious, dreading, as he said, ‘a historical administration’. 1858Longfellow M. Standish Notes 132 This historical and gallant little ship [the May Flower] returned to England in the month of April, 1621.
5. Gram. = historic a. 4.
1867W. Smith tr. Curtius' Gr. Gram. (ed. 2) §225 Two classes of Tenses: A. Principal, viz.:—1. Present: 2. Perfect: 3. Future. B. Historical, viz.:—1. Imperfect: 2. Pluperfect: 3. Aorist. Ibid. §487 By a lively apprehension a past action may be represented as present, hence the use, very frequent in Greek, of the Historical Present, which frequently alternates with past tenses. 1965English Studies Feb. 60 An interesting paper on ‘Chaucer's Historical Present, its Meaning and Uses’ by L. D. Benson.
6. Biol. Relating to the life-history of an organism or race of organisms.
1875Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs' Bot. iii. iv. 695 The internal and external conditions of growth may therefore be distinguished as the historical and the physical; but those properties of a plant which have been obtained historically are generally termed hereditary. Ibid. 697 So far as the definition given above of historical properties concerns the inherited specific peculiarities of plants, the term is not metaphorical from the point of view of the Theory of Descent, but must be taken in its literal signification.
7. In Comb., prefixed to an adj. to denote:
a. ‘historical and{ddd}’, as historical-comparative, historical-economic, historical-sociological;
b. ‘historically, as applied to history’, as historical-lexicographical, historical-onomatological, historical-typological; also historical-minded adj., historical-mindedness.
1933L. Bloomfield Language i. 19 These two streams of study, the historical-comparative and the philosophical-descriptive.
1948J. Towster Political Power in U.S.S.R. iv. 53 The historical-economic conditions of national movements.
1965Language XLI. 138 Historical-lexicographical monographs.
1903F. von Hügel Let. 14 Mar. (1927) 117 Dr. Bigg, Dr. Bryce..are historical-minded also. 1964Language XL. 115 Edgerton's linguistic work..historical-minded but not to the neglect of description.
1895Acton Lect. Study History 58 That influence for which the depressing names historicism and historical-mindedness have been devised. 1965Listener 3 June 819/1 In one important aspect at least the change can be described as the growth of a new kind of historical-mindedness.
1960Amer. Speech XXXV. 210 Four name maps described as a ‘historical-onomatological record’.
1965English Studies Feb. 73 The historical-sociological aspects of art.
1962D. C. Swanson in Householder & Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 72 ‘Recent’ refers to the other end of the (historical-typological) pole.
B. n. (ellipt.) A historical statement, work, etc.
1666Wallis in Phil. Trans. I. 286 Granting his [Vossius'] Historicals to be all true. 1894Daily News 28 Nov. 5/4 Historicals show signs of a rise, and politicals signs of a headlong fall. 1967E. Grierson Crime of one's Own i. 7 The dreadful proliferation of Whodunnits and Historicals. 1967H. Harrison Technicolor Time Machine (1968) iv. 36 I've always been interested in doing a historical. 1971‘A. Blaisdell’ Practice to Deceive iv. 55 Donaldson was yawning over a paper-back historical, when he was buzzed by the desk. |