3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

historical

adjective

1: of or relating to the study of history; "historical scholars"; "a historical perspective" [ant: {ahistorical}]

2: having once lived or existed or taken place in the real world as distinct from being legendary; "the historical Jesus"; "doubt that a historical Camelot every existed"; "actual historical events"

3: belonging to the past; of what is important or famous in the past; "historic victories"; "historical (or historic) times"; "a historical character" [syn: {historic}]

4: used of the study of a phenomenon (especially language) as it changes through time; "diachronic linguistics" [syn: {diachronic}] [ant: {synchronic}]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

historic \his*tor"ic\ (h[i^]s*t[o^]r"[i^]k), historical \his*tor"ic*al\ (h[i^]s*t[o^]r"[i^]*kal), adjective [L. historicus, Gr. "istoriko's: cf. F. historique. See {History}.] Of or pertaining to history, or the record of past events; as, an historical poem; the historic page. -- {His*tor"ic*al*ness}, noun -- {His*to*ric"i*ty}, noun

There warriors frowning in historic brass. --Pope.

2. having once lived, existed, or taken place in the real world; -- contrasted with {legendary}; as, the historical Jesus; doubt that a historical Camelot every existed; actual historical events. [WordNet 1.5]

3. Belonging to the past; as, historical (or historic) times; a historical character. [WordNet 1.5]

4. Within the period of time recorded in written documents; as, within historic times. Opposite of {prehistoric}.

Syn: diachronic. [WordNet 1.5]

5. (Linguistics) Same as {diachronic}. {synchronic} [WordNet 1.5]

{Historical painting}, that branch of painting which represents the events of history.

{Historical sense}, that meaning of a passage which is deduced from the circumstances of time, place, etc., under which it was written.

{The historic sense}, the capacity to conceive and represent the unity and significance of a past era or age.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

78 Moby Thesaurus words for "historical": absolute, actual, admitting no question, ascertained, attested, authentic, authenticated, autobiographical, biographical, categorically true, certain, certified, chronologic, confirmable, confirmed, corroborated, de facto, demonstrable, demonstratable, demonstrated, determined, documentary, documented, effectual, established, factual, for real, genuine, hagiographic, historic, historied, historiographic, honest-to-God, inappealable, incontestable, incontrovertible, indisputable, indubitable, irrefragable, irrefutable, legendary, martyrologic, not in error, objectively true, positive, provable, proved, real, recorded, reliable, self-evident, substantial, substantiated, sure-enough, testable, traditional, true, true as gospel, truthful, unanswerable, unconfutable, unconfuted, undeniable, undenied, undoubted, unerroneous, unfallacious, unfalse, unimpeachable, unmistaken, unquestionable, unrefutable, unrefuted, validated, veracious, verifiable, verified, veritable

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