entry
history
/ˈhɪstəri/Recorded account of past events
From Greek histor (knowledge gained by inquiry).
from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Doublet of story and storey. Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John...
from Latin historia "narrative of past events, account, tale, story,"
+1 more sourcefrom Old French estoire , estorie "story; chronicle, history" (12c., Modern French histoire )
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English historie
Word Ancestry
from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Doublet of story and storey. Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John...
from Latin historia "narrative of past events, account, tale, story,"
+1 more sourcefrom Old French estoire , estorie "story; chronicle, history" (12c., Modern French histoire )
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English historie
Back in Herodotus’s day, in the 5th century BCE, the Greek idea behind this word was not “the past” but “inquiry.” It came from a root meaning “to see” — the same old family as vision and idea — because Greeks treated knowing as something you did by looking closely, asking questions, and then telling what you found. Latin picked it up as historia, and medieval French turned it into estorie, so English inherited both the “serious chronicle” sense and the plain old “story” sense; that’s why history and story are still etymological cousins, like two heirs quarreling over the same estate. John Gower was writing historie in English by 1393, and before long the word had become the grand, bookish name for everything from kings and battles to bird lists in county gazetteers. So every time you say history, you’re really echoing a witness leaning forward and saying, “I went out and checked.”
The Story
Back in Herodotus’s day, in the 5th century BCE, the Greek idea behind this word was not “the past” but “inquiry.” It came from a root meaning “to see” — the same old family as vision and idea — because Greeks treated knowing as something you did by looking closely, asking questions, and then telling what you found. Latin picked it up as historia, and medieval French turned it into estorie, so English inherited both the “serious chronicle” sense and the plain old “story” sense; that’s why history and story are still etymological cousins, like two heirs quarreling over the same estate. John Gower was writing historie in English by 1393, and before long the word had become the grand, bookish name for everything from kings and battles to bird lists in county gazetteers. So every time you say history, you’re really echoing a witness leaning forward and saying, “I went out and checked.”
Kin & Kindred
From 'histor'·knowledge gained by inquiry; account of events
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary