Historic or Historical?

In the study of history, we often come across the adjectives historic and historical. Do they essentially mean the same thing?

You will be happy to know that they do not, and there is a significant difference between the two words.

Basically, anything that happened in the past can be described as historical. The word historical simply means that whatever we are describing is in the past: The historical novel, Gone with the Wind, won first-time author Margaret Mitchell a Pulitzer Prize. The novel is about an event in the past, and so it is historical. Most towns have historical societies, because these entities deal with the past.

Historic, on the other hand, denotes something momentous from history. It describes an event action, or person destined for remembrance: The Civil War was the most historic American event of the 19th century, and the Battle of Gettysburg was the most historic fight of that war. Another example is: When the signers affixed their signatures to The Declaration of Independence, they knew their actions were of historic importance.

Therefore, a birthday, once it has passed, is historical – but a 100th birthday might be considered historic.

A recently celebrated wedding anniversary is just historical – but a 50th or 70th anniversary, especially these days, could be considered historic to the couple involved.

Another question that arises from these two similar but differently utilized adjectives is whether or not to pronounce the “h” when speaking or writing it. Do we say “a” historic, or “an” historic?

The answer is that both are considered correct. It depends on whether or not we pronounce the “h”.  

We say the “h” in hope but we don’t pronounce the “h” in honor. We usually pronounce the “h” in history, but we don’t always say the “h” when we use the term historic or historical. Whatever one’s personal preference is when using the word is just fine.

The British almost always say “an historic” because they don’t pronounce the “h”. Americans usually do pronounce the h, as in “a historic event”, but sometimes we leave off that first consonant when we say “historic” or “historical”.

The English language breaks just about every grammatical rule, and gets away with it. It’s nice that we can be correct either way – as long as we properly use each of the above adjectives in context.

 Pass the word!