history

• n. 曆史，曆史學；曆史記錄；來曆

來自拉丁語historia,敘述，告知，講述過去發生的事，來自希臘語histor,智者，見證者，評論者，來自PIE*wid-tor,看，知道，了解，詞源同visit,vision.其原義更偏重於講故事，含有個人的主觀色彩，後來從14世紀開始才逐漸確立為對過去發生事件的真實記錄，而於1842年才確立為一門學科，即我們現在所理解的曆史學。比較其與同源詞story的區別。

history

history: [15] Etymologically, history denotes simply ‘knowledge’; its much more specific modern meaning is decidedly a secondary development. Its story begins with Greek hístōr ‘learned man’, a descendant of Indo-European *wid- ‘know, see’, which also produced English wit and Latin vidēre ‘see’. From hístōr was derived historíā ‘knowledge obtained by enquiry’, hence ‘written account of one’s enquiries, narrative, history’.

English acquired it via Latin historia, and at first used it for ‘fictional narrative’ as well as ‘account of actual events in the past’ (a sense now restricted to story, essentially the same word but acquired via Anglo-Norman).
=> story, vision, wit

history (n.)

late 14c., "relation of incidents" (true or false), from Old French estoire, estorie "chronicle, history, story" (12c., Modern French histoire), from Latin historia "narrative of past events, account, tale, story," from Greek historia "a learning or knowing by inquiry; an account of one's inquiries, history, record, narrative," from historein "inquire," from histor "wise man, judge," from PIE *wid-tor-, from root *weid- "to know," literally "to see" (see vision).

Related to Greek idein "to see," and to eidenai "to know." In Middle English, not differentiated from story; sense of "record of past events" probably first attested late 15c. As a branch of knowledge, from 1842. Sense of "systematic account (without reference to time) of a set of natural phenomena" (1560s) is now obsolete except in natural history.

One difference between history and imaginative literature ... is that history neither anticipates nor satisfies our curiosity, whereas literature does. [Guy Davenport, "Wheel Ruts," 1996]

1. I fell under the influence of a history master.

我當時深受一位曆史老師的影響。

來自柯林斯例句

2. The boundaries between history and storytelling are always being blurred and muddled.

曆史和軼聞的分界向來是模糊而混亂的。

來自柯林斯例句

3. With apologies to my old history teacher, who needs history lessons?

這話對不住我親愛的曆史老師，不過有誰需要曆史課呢？

來自柯林斯例句

4. The book is both a history and a passionate polemic for tolerance.

這本書既是一段曆史，也是一篇主張寬容的激情論辯。

來自柯林斯例句

5. The whole idea was to give history a happy gloss.

整個想法就是要粉飾曆史。

來自柯林斯例句