Definitions for historian
hɪˈstɔr i ən, -ˈstoʊr-his·to·ri·an

Princeton's WordNet(4.53 / 26 votes)Rate this definition:

1. historian, historiographernoun

   a person who is an authority on history and who studies it and writes about it

Wiktionary(4.00 / 5 votes)Rate this definition:

1. historiannoun

   A writer of history; a chronicler; an annalist.

2. historiannoun

   One versed or well informed in history.

3. Etymology: From historien

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Historiannoun

   A writer of facts and events; a writer of history.

   Etymology: historicus, Latin; historien, French.

   What thanks sufficient, or what recompence
   Equal, have I to render thee, divine
   Historian! John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. viii.

   Our country, which has produced writers of the first figure in every other kind of work, has been very barren in good historians. Joseph Addison, Freeholder.

   Not added years on years my task could close,
   The long historian of my country’s woes. Alexander Pope, Odyssey.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Historiannoun

   a writer of history; a chronicler; an annalist

2. Historiannoun

   one versed or well informed in history

3. Etymology: [F. historien.]

Freebase(4.40 / 5 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Historian

   A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is concerned with events preceding written history, the individual is a historian of prehistory. Although "historian" can be used to describe amateur and professional historians alike, it is reserved more recently for those who have acquired graduate degrees in the discipline. Some historians, though, are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

Matched Categories

1. • History
   • Scholar

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'historian' in Nouns Frequency: #1393

How to pronounce historian?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say historian in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of historian in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of historian in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of historian in a Sentence

1. Gore Vidal:

   It is difficult to find a reputable American historian who will acknowledge the crude fact that a Franklin Roosevelt, say, wanted to be President merely to wield power, to be famed and to be feared. To learn this simple fact one must wade through a sea of

2. Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians (1918):

   The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

3. Steven Runciman:

   I believe that the supreme duty of the historian is to write history, that is to say, to attempt to record in one sweeping sequence the greater events and movements that have swayed the destiny of man.

4. American University:

   The hardest thing I had to do as a historian on the topic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Jews was not to rewrite history based on what we know and believe today.

5. Friedrich von Schlegel:

   The historian is a prophet in reverse.

Popularity rank by frequency of use