密歇根新闻广播 历史事件不一定具有历史意义

Many would agree that all historic events are historical. But there's some dispute over whether all historical events are historic.

This week's topic comes from a listener named Cyndi who says, "It really 'gets my goat' to hear people use the redundant¹ 'historical' when 'historic' will suffice."

We hadn't given this much thought before Cyndi brought it up, but we had an intuition that there is an accepted distinction between these two words. We assumed that "historical" events are those that simply happened in the past, while "historic" events are remembered and talked about for years to come.

As it turns out, that's in line with many usage guides.

For instance, Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage from the 1920s says that "historical" is the "ordinary" word, while "historic" means "memorable²" or assured of a place in history. The AP Stylebook makes a similar case.

However, Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage points out that these two variantshave overlapped³ for most of their history, so you'll find these words used interchangeably quite often.

Interestingly, "historic" and "historical" actually do have very parallel histories. They both show up in the 1500s as a way to say "belonging to history." By the mid⁴ to late 1700s, both could refer to something that was of particular importance.

According to the Corpus of Contemporary American English, these two adjectives do tendto distribute along the distinctive⁵ lines laid out in style guides. For example, a "historic agreement" is one that history will remember, while a "historical novel" is a novel that simply takes place in the past.

Do you make a distinction between "historic" and "historical" or do you use them synonymously?

1 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

2 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

3 overlapped   

_adj.重叠的v.部分重叠( overlap的过去式和过去分词 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠

参考例句：

• His visit and mine overlapped. 他的访问期与我的访问期有几天重叠。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Our visits to the town overlapped. 我们彼此都恰巧到那小城观光。 来自辞典例句

4 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

5 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。