Noun

Wikipedia

Singular history

Plural histories

history (plural histories)

1. The aggregate of past events.

   History repeats itself if we don’t learn from its mistakes.

   Holes in your pant pockets turn your coins into history.

2. The branch of knowledge that studies the past; the assessment of notable events.

   He teaches history at the university.

   History will not look kindly on these tyrants.

   He dreams of an invention that will make history.

3. A record or narrative description of past events.
4. (medicine) The list of past and continuing medical conditions of an individual or family.

   A personal medical history is required for the insurance policy.

   He has a history of cancer in his family.

5. (computing) A record of previous user events.

   I visted a great site yesterday but forgot the URL; oh! ... luckily I didn't clear my history.

Synonyms

• (aggregate of past events): past
• (record or narrative description of past events): account, chronicle, story, tale
• (medicine: list of past and continuing medical conditions): medical history
• (computing: record of previous user events): log

Derived terms

• alternate history
• art history
• call history
• case history
• credit history
• family history
• historian
• historic
• historical
• historically
• historiography

• history repeats itself
• investment history
• life history
• local history
• medical history
• natural history
• oral history
• postal history
• prehistory
• prehistorian
• prehistoric
• prosecution history

Related terms

• herstory

History is the study of the past, with special attention to the written record of the activities of human beings over time. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and the lessons history teaches. A famous quote by George Santayana has it that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as the legends surrounding King Arthur) are usually classified as cultural heritage rather than the "disinterested investigation" needed by the discipline of history.

History is the study of human behavior through time. When used as the name of a field of study, history refers to the study and interpretation of past humans, families and societies as preserved primarily through written sources.

Sourced

• What then is, generally speaking, the truth of history ? A fable agreed upon.
  • Napoleon, Memoirs

• Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.
  • Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)

• I don’t know much about history, and I wouldn’t give a nickel for all the history in the world. It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today.
  • Henry Ford, Interview in Chicago Tribune (25 May 1916)

• Everybody likes a bit of gossip to some point, as long as it’s gossip with some point to it. That’s why I like history. History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.
  • Gore Vidal, Interview in: Butt, Nr. 20, Special Summer 2007, S. 63.

• If you don’t know history, it’s as if you were born yesterday. If you were born yesterday, then any leader can tell you anything.
  • Howard Zinn, Speech on "War and Social Justice" at Binghamton University on November 8th, 2008.

Unsourced

• Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.
  • Lee Simonson

• Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it.
  • Oscar Wilde

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sun Jul 5 23:27:57 2009