historian

[hi-stawr-ee-uh n, -stohr-]

See more synonyms for historian on Thesaurus.com

noun

an expert in history; authority on history.
a writer of history; chronicler.

Origin of historian

1400–50; late Middle English. See history, -an

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for historian

professor, writer, teacher, chronicler, historiographer, annalist

Examples from the Web for historian

Contemporary Examples of historian

Historian Matthew Avery Sutton, however, wants you to think of something else: the End Times.
The Evangelical Apocalypse Is All Your Fault
Jay Michaelson
January 4, 2015
Michael Kazin is a historian who has written a lot about the New Left.
Thank Congress, Not LBJ for Great Society
Julian Zelizer, Scott Porch
January 4, 2015
But Winning Marriage will be essential for the historian who, someday, tries to tell the full story.
The Real Story Behind the Fight for Marriage Equality
E.J. Graff
December 30, 2014
“Stop the presses,” splashes Jill Lepore, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer.
Wonder Woman’s Creation Story Is Wilder Than You Could Ever Imagine
Tom Arnold-Forster
November 3, 2014
Historian David Fromkin summed up the mess that resulted in the title of his book The Peace to End All Peace.
Turkish President Declares Lawrence of Arabia a Bigger Enemy than ISIS
Jamie Dettmer
October 13, 2014

Historical Examples of historian

And Shakspere has no desire or need to act the historian in the decision of that question.
A Dish Of Orts
George MacDonald
Mr. Bancroft, the historian, delivered the Inaugural Address.
Cleveland Past and Present
Maurice Joblin
John Stow, the historian, worked at the trade during some part of his life.
Self-Help
Samuel Smiles
The world seems to be waiting for the historian that can write.
The Coryston Family
Mrs. Humphry Ward
He had not been content to take up the position of onlooker and historian only.
A Nest of Spies
Pierre Souvestre

British Dictionary definitions for historian

historian

noun

a person who writes or studies history, esp one who is an authority on it

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for historian

mid-15c., from Middle French historien (14c.), from Latin historia (see history). As "writer of history in the higher sense" (distinguished from a mere annalist or chronicler), from 1530s. The Old English word was þeod-wita.

[T]he historian's fallacy is the error of assuming that a man who has a given historical experience knows it, when he has had it, to be all that a historian would know it to be, with the advantage of historical perspective. [David Hackett Fischer, "Historians' Fallacies," 1970]