Etimology
From Middle English historie, from Old French estoire, estorie (“chronicle, history, story”) (French histoire), from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “learning through research”), from ἱστορέω (historéō, “to research, inquire (and) record”), from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “the knowing, wise one”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Doublet of story and storey. Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John Gower, Confessio Amantis, which was aimed at an educated audience familiar with French and Latin.
noun
history (countable and uncountable, plural histories)
The aggregate of past events.
The branch of knowledge that studies the past; the assessment of notable events.
The portion of the past that is known and recorded by this field of study, as opposed to all earlier and unknown times that preceded it (prehistory).
(countable) A set of events involving an entity.
(countable) A record or narrative description of past events.
(countable, medicine) A list of past and continuing medical conditions of an individual or family.
(countable, computing) A record of previous user events, especially of visited web pages in a browser.
(informal) Something that no longer exists or is no longer relevant.
(uncountable) Shared experience or interaction.
Examples
Synonyms: background, past
History repeats itself if we don’t learn from its mistakes.
With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.
Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
So, we have a shared history - we will also have a shared future.
He teaches history at the university.
History will not look kindly on these tyrants.
He dreams of an invention that will make history.
History and experience act as a filter that can distort as much as elucidate. It is largely forgotten now, overlooked in the one-line description of Tony Blair and George W Bush as the men who lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but there was a wider context to their conviction.
in all of human history and prehistory
in all recorded history
a long and sordid history
What is your medical history?
The family's history includes events best forgotten.
[I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality.
Synonyms: account, chronicle, story, tale
I really enjoyed Shakespeare's tragedies more than his histories.
a short history of post-Columbian colonization
Synonym: medical history
A personal medical history is required for the insurance policy.
He has a history of cancer in his family.
This diagnosis is usually based solely on the history and physical examination, although laboratory tests are occasionally also obtained.
Synonym: log
I visited a great site yesterday but forgot the URL. Luckily, I didn't clear my history.
When you do that, the browser window has no browser history, so it doesn't report a referrer page to the first site you visit.
I told him that if he doesn't get his act together, he's history.
There is too much history between them for them to split up now.
He has had a lot of history with the police.
verb
history (third-person singular simple present histories, present participle historying, simple past and past participle historied)
(obsolete) To narrate or record.
Examples
And therefore will hee wipe his Tables cleane, And keepe no Tell-tale to his Memorie, That may repeat, and Historie his losse