historical

Etymology

From Latin historicus (“historical”) + -al (“forming adjectives denoting of or relating to”).

adj

1. Of, concerning, or in accordance with recorded history, (particularly) as opposed to legends, myths, and fictions.
   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. a. 1475, chapter 5, in Higden's Polychronicon, volume I
   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.
      Hagiography, the historical genre which is the subject of this week's seminar, comprises narratives concerned with the saints and their achievements, especially the miracles which God has performed through them and on their behalf. December 8, 2017, Paul Hayward, “Seminar VII: Hagiography”, in Medieval Primary Sources—Genre, Rhetoric and Transmission
      There is no acknowledgment—because there is no understanding—that sometimes historical fiction departs from facts in order to reach for more abstract, thematic, or complexly intuitive truths that even the most diligently fact-checked histories and biographies can fail to illuminate. January 28, 2015, Mark Harris, “How 'Selma' Got Smeared”, in Grantland
2. Of, concerning, or in accordance with the past generally.
   1. (literature, art) Set in the past.
   2. (uncommon) Former, erstwhile; (religious, obsolete) lapsed, nominal.
      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 ... 1886, Jacob Boehme translated by John Ellistone in Works, volume 1, epistle 2, §49, page 39
   3. (grammar) One of various tenses or moods used to tell about past events, historic (tense).
      The historical present is often treated as a principal tense, but there are exceptions and sometimes both constructions appear in the same passage. 2010, Gerd Haverling, “Actionality, tense, and viewpoint”, in New Perspectives on Historical Latin Syntax, page 363
   4. (obsolete, biology) Synonym of hereditary or evolutionary.
3. Of, concerning, or in accordance with the scholarly discipline of history.
   1. Done in the manner of a historian: written as a development over time or in accordance with the historical method.
      The historical development of skill in foreshortening will be demonstrated in another section. Only the more perfect phases will be treated here. 1913, Herbert J. Spinden, A Study of Maya Art: Its Subject Matter and Historical Development, page 27
      ...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. 2003 June, Denise E. DeLorme et al., “Journalists' Hostility towards Public Relations”, in Public Relations Review, volume 23, number 2
      The idea that hagiography can be used to write about history, but in itself does not contain a historical sense, seems not to be limited to the study of India. 2011, Christian Lee Novetzke, “The theographic and the historiographic in an Indian sacred life story”, in Time, History, and the Religious Imagery in South Asia, page 119
   2. (uncommon) Synonym of historic: important or likely to be important to history and historians.
      EB: We live in a special time of awakening. This is a historical moment for Egypt DS: In which many see you as a kind of messiah. EB: I neither can nor want to be a savior. July 12, 2010, Erich Follath et al., “Interview with Mohamed ElBaradei”, in Der Spiegel
4. Forming compound adjectives with the meaning "historical/~" or "historically":
   historical-political

noun

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