| 词组 | historic, historical |
| 释义 | historic, historical Historic and historical are simply variants. Over the course of two or three hundred years of use, they have tended to diverge somewhat. Historical is the usual choice for the broad and general uses relating to history: • ... an historical survey of the United States Army in wartime —Current Biography, January 1968 • ... a historical survey of popular music —John J. O'Connor, N.Y. Times, 10 May 1981 • ... an historical interpretation of Bonhoeffer's theology —Times Literary Supp., 30 July 1971 • ... a possible way out of a politcal and historical tangle —Norman Cousins, Saturday Rev., 30 Oct. 1971 Historic is most commonly used for something famous or important in history: • What I think marks both those times is that people who were in either of them knew they were in a historic moment —Arlo Guthrie, quoted in Yankee, August 1986 • Greetings from historic Milledgeville where the ladies and gents wash in separate tubs —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 19 May 1957 • On May 10, 1973, in a historic decision, the House voted 219 to 188 to stop the Defense Department from spending any more money on the war in Vietnam —Tip O'Neill with William Novak, Man of the House, 1987 But this is not a complete differentiation. Historic still crops up in the general sense: • ... the literal satirist, who might be only of limited historic significance —Robert B. Heilman, Southern Rev., April 1970 Historical also means "important in history," but this sense does not appear to be very widely used any more: • ... the Dean, speaking from that most historical pulpit —Hamlin Garland, Back-Trailers from the Middle Border, 1928 Most of the usage writers pretend that the differentiation is more absolute than it actually is. But we would suggest that you go along with the general trend; bucking it may be historically justified but is more likely to interfere with the smooth transfer of your ideas from paper to reader. You will have noticed that both a and an are used before historic and historical. A number of commentators prescribe a here, but you should feel free to use an if it sounds more natural to you. We find that more writers use a than an but that both are common. For more on the use of a and an, see a, an. |
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