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history

 - 7 dictionary results

his·to·ry

   [his-tuh-ree, his-tree]
–noun,plural-ries.
1.
the branch of knowledge dealing with past events.
2.
a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account; chronicle: a history of France; a Medical history of the patient.
3.
the aggregate of past events.
4.
the record of past events and times, esp. in connection with the human race.
5.
a past notable for its important, unusual, or interesting events: a ship with a history.
6.
acts, ideas, or events that will or can shape the course of the future; immediate but significant happenings: Firsthand observers of our space program see history in the making.
7.
a systematic account of any set of natural phenomena without particular reference to time: a history of the American eagle.
8.
a drama representing historical events: Shakespeare's comedies, histories, and tragedies.
Use history in a Sentence
Origin:
1350–1400; ME historie < L historia < Gk historía learning or knowing by inquiry, history; deriv. of hístōr one who knows or sees (akin to wit, video, veda)

—Related forms
un·der·his·to·ry, noun,plural-ries.
un·his·to·ry, noun,plural-ries.

—Synonyms
2. record, annals. See narrative.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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World English Dictionary
history (ˈhɪstərɪ, ˈhɪstrɪ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n , pl -ries
1.  a.  a record or account, often chronological in approach, of past events, developments, etc
 b.  (as modifier): a history book; a history play
2.  all that is preserved or remembered of the past, esp in written form
3.  the discipline of recording and interpreting past events involving human beings
4.  past events, esp when considered as an aggregate
5.  an event in the past, esp one that has been forgotten or reduced in importance: their quarrel was just history
6.  the past, background, previous experiences, etc, of a thing or person: the house had a strange history
7.  computing a stored list of the websites that a user has recently visited
8.  a play that depicts or is based on historical events
9.  a narrative relating the events of a character's life: the history of Joseph Andrews
 
[C15: from Latin historia, from Greek: enquiry, from historein to narrate, from histōr judge]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Word Origin & History

history
1390, "relation of incidents" (true or false), from O.Fr. historie, from L. historia "narrative, account, tale, story," from Gk. historia "a learning or knowing by inquiry, history, record, narrative," from historein "inquire," from histor "wise man, judge," from PIE *wid-tor-, from base *weid- "to know," lit. "to see" (see vision). Related to Gk. idein "to see," and to eidenai "to know." In M.E., not differentiated from story; sense of "record of past events" probably first attested 1485. Sense of "systematic account (without reference to time) of a set of natural phenomena" (1567) is now obs. except in natural history. What is historic (1669) is noted or celebrated in history; what is historical (1561) deals with history. Historian "writer of history in the higher sense," distinguished from a mere annalist or chronicler, is from 1531. The O.E. word was þeod-wita.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

his·to·ry definition

Pronunciation: /ˈhis-t(ə-)rē/
Function: n
pl-ries; : an account of a patient's family and personal background and past and present health
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2007 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Slang Dictionary

history definition


  1. n.
    someone or something in the past. (See also ancient history; I'm history.) : Don't make a move! If this gun goes off, you're history.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Computing Dictionary

history definition


1. A record of previous user inputs (e.g. to a command interpreter) which can be re-entered without re-typing them. The major improvement of the C shell (csh) over the Bourne shell (sh) was the addition of a command history. This was still inferior to the history mechanism on VMS which allowed you to recall previous commands as the current input line. You could then edit the command using cursor motion, insert and delete. These sort of history editing facilities are available under tcsh and GNU Emacs.
2. The history of computing (http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/index.html).
3. See Usenet newsgroups news:soc.history and news:alt.history for discussion of the history of the world.
(1995-04-05)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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Idioms & Phrases

history

see ancient history; go down (in history); make history; (history) repeats itself.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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