History

History (derived from Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historía) 'inquiry; knowledge acquired by
investigation')[1] is the systematic study and documentation of the human past.[2][3] History
is an academic discipline which uses a narrative to describe, examine, question, and
analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect.[4][5] Historians
debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different
causes and effects. Historians debate the nature of history as an end in itself, and its
usefulness in giving perspective on the problems of the present.[4][6][7][8]
The period of events before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory.
[9]
"History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory,
discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these
events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written
documents, oral accounts or traditional oral histories, art and material artifacts, and
ecological markers.[10]
Stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as
the tales surrounding King Arthur), are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends.
[11][12]
History differs from myth in that it is supported by verifiable evidence. However,
ancient cultural influences have helped create variant interpretations of the nature of
history, which have evolved over the centuries and continue to change today. The
modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and
certain topical or thematic elements of historical investigation. History is taught as a part
of primary and secondary education, and the academic study of history is a major
discipline in universities.
Herodotus, a 5th-century BCE Greek historian, is often considered the "father of

history", as one of the first historians in the Western tradition,[13] though he has been
criticized as the "father of lies".[14][15] Along with his contemporary Thucydides, he helped
form the foundations for the modern study of past events and societies.[16] Their works
continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the
military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern
historical writing. In East Asia a state chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, was
reputed to date from as early as 722 BCE, though only 2nd-century BCE texts have
survived. The title "father of history" has also been attributed, in their respective
societies, to Sima Qian, Ibn Khaldun, and Kenneth Dike.[17][18][19]
Etymology
History by Frederick Dielman (1896)

The word history comes from historía (Ancient
Greek: ἱστορία, romanized: historíā, lit. 'inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge'[20]). It was
in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his History of Animals.[21] The ancestor
word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes'
oath, and in Boeotic inscriptions (in a legal sense, either "judge" or "witness", or similar).
The Greek word was borrowed into Classical Latin as historia, meaning "investigation,
inquiry, research, account, description, written account of past events, writing of history,
historical narrative, recorded knowledge of past events, story, narrative". History was
borrowed from Latin (possibly via Old Irish or Old Welsh) into Old
English as stær ("history, narrative, story"), but this word fell out of use in the late Old
English period.[22] Meanwhile, as Latin became Old French (and Anglo-
Norman), historia developed into forms such as istorie, estoire, and historie, with new
developments in the meaning: "account of the events of a person's life (beginning of the
12th century), chronicle, account of events as relevant to a group of people or people in
general (1155), dramatic or pictorial representation of historical events (c. 1240), body
of knowledge relative to human evolution, science (c. 1265), narrative of real or
imaginary events, story (c. 1462)".[22]
It was from Anglo-Norman that history was brought into Middle English, and it has
persisted. It appears in the 13th-century Ancrene Wisse, but seems to have become a
common word in the late 14th century, with an early attestation appearing in John
Gower's Confessio Amantis of the 1390s (VI.1383): "I finde in a bok compiled | To this
matiere an old histoire, | The which comth nou to mi memoire". In Middle English, the
meaning of history was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning "the branch of
knowledge that deals with past events; the formal record or study of past events, esp.
human affairs" arose in the mid-15th century.[22] With the Renaissance, older senses of
the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term
in the late 16th century, when he wrote about natural history. For him, historia was "the
knowledge of objects determined by space and time", that sort of knowledge provided
by memory (while science was provided by reason, and poetry was provided
by fantasy).[23]
In an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like

Chinese (史 vs. 诌) now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in
general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages,
which are solidly synthetic and highly inflected, the same word is still used to mean both
"history" and "story". Historian in the sense of a "researcher of history" is attested from
1531. In all European languages, the substantive history is still used to mean both "what
happened with men" and "the scholarly study of the happened" or the
word historiography.[21] The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from
1669.[24]

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History (derived from Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historía) 'inquiry; knowledge acquired by

Herodotus, a 5th-century BCE Greek historian, is often considered the "father of

History by Frederick Dielman (1896)

In an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like

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