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Definition of historian noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

historian

noun
 
/hɪˈstɔːriən/
 
/hɪˈstɔːriən/
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  1. a person who studies or writes about history; an expert in history Some speakers do not pronounce the ‘h’ at the beginning of historian and use ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ before it. This now sounds old-fashioned.
    • No serious historian today accepts this theory.
    • Revisionist historians have questioned the accepted version of events.
    • She is a writer as well as a distinguished modern historian.
    • The oldest tradition goes back to the contemporary historian John Foxe.
    • What will future historians make of the late 20th century?
    • a talk given by an eminent social historian
    • the official historian of the Labour Party
    • the official historian of the United States Army
    Topics Historyb2, Literature and writingb2
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • distinguished
    • eminent
    • great
    See full entry
    Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French historien, via Latin from Greek historia ‘finding out, narrative, history’, from histōr ‘learned, wise man’, from an Indo-European root shared by wit ‘have knowledge’.
See historian in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee historian in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
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