Historism is a word

In Russian, the active and passivevocabulary. The first consists of words that each of us uses almost on a daily basis, the second group includes words rarely used in speech. These include archaisms, historicisms, neologisms. Their study takes place in the section «Vocabulary and Lexicology».

Active and passive vocabulary

The vocabulary of the Russian language has millions of words. Linguists divide all the words of the Russian language into two large groups — active vocabulary and passive.

Passive vocabulary includes words that are familiar to a person or recognizable to him, but are rarely used. Here distinguish archaisms, historicisms, neologisms.

Active vocabulary includes words that wewe use quite often. These include alliances and pronouns, words by which we designate the world around us. This is the name of furniture, clothes, products, words for referring to kinship ties, professions, names of emotions and many others.

Active and passive vocabulary of every personis individual and depends on age, place of residence, professional activity. Throughout our entire life, its volume changes in one direction or another, depending on a number of factors.

Passive vocabulary

Old and new words belong to the passive vocabulary.

Among the obsolete words there are two maingroups: archaisms and historicisms. We will talk about them first of all, we will consider the definition, the function performed by archaisms and historicisms, examples of the most frequently encountered words.

New words form a much smaller part of the passive stock of the language and are called neologisms. Next, we will discuss their concept and the causes of occurrence in speech.

Archaisms

To begin with, we will analyze obsolete words — archaisms andhistoricisms. Archaisms are obsolete words that are currently out of use. These are old names of modern objects or names. Often, other words come to replace archaisms, which refer to the same concepts and objects as the obsolete word. Each of them has a modern analog, in other words, a word-synonym.

Depending on the mode of formation, archaisms are:

1. Lexical, which were replaced by words that have different roots. These words are difficult to understand without knowing their translation or the original meaning. This includes words such as mouth — lips, finger — finger, interpreter — interpreter.
2. Lexical and word-building. In this situation, archaism and its modern version have one root, but they differ in word-forming morphemes. For example, familiar — familiar, fish — fisherman.
3. Lexico-phonetic — differ from the modern version of phonetic design. For example, pi’ite — poet, history — history, number — number.
4. Lexical and semantic. These include archaisms, which still function in the language, while having a different meaning. For example, the word a shame previously meant catcher, today — shame or dishonor.

At the end of the article, we will consider the role of archaisms in the Russian language, especially literature. Archaisms are fixed in explanatory dictionaries with the mark «obsolete».

Historicisms

Historicism refers to words that are usedto identify words and objects that existed before, but have already disappeared from our lives. Historisms, examples of which we find most often in the literature, policeman And so on. These concepts function today in historical works and chronicles, old books and newspapers.

Historicism includes words that denotedthe social structure of life, the name of institutions, persons and positions, military ranks, weapons items and weapons, ancient units of measure, currency, household items. For example: tavern, caftan, mace, altyn, serf, governor, gunner.

It is important to note that historisms do not have synonyms. This is very important to remember, as this is one of the hallmarks of historicism.

Words-historisms are also introduced into explanatory dictionarieswith a litter «obsolete», less often «ist». Also there are various dictionaries of historicisms, where you can see not only the meaning of the word, but also get acquainted with the image of the object that denotes the concept.

Historisms and Archaisms: The Difference in Concepts

Quite often students and students, andjust people who are not associated with philology, the question arises: how archaisms are different from historicisms? The main difference is that archaism is an obsolete designation of an object or concept that is still present in our life. Historicism also denotes concepts and objects that have long since disappeared from use.

As already noted, another distinctivesign — archaisms have synonyms, historicisms — no. Based on these two distinctive features, you can easily figure out which category belongs to a particular obsolete word.

Neologisms

Neologisms are words that appear inthe emergence of new phenomena or concepts. Some time the word is considered a neologism, later it becomes common and enters the active vocabulary of the language.

Neologisms can arise as a result of developmenttechnologies, and to leave the pen of the authors. Thus, FM Dostoevsky became the author of the word «fade away», and N. M. Karamzin introduced the word «industry» into the vocabulary. Based on this, authorial and general language neologisms are distinguished.

In different periods, neologisms were such words as car, rocket, laptop, mail and many others. When the use of neologisms reaches their peak and their meaning becomes clear to everyone, these words automatically become the most commonly used ones.

If historisms and archaisms are fixed in dictionarieswith special notes, neologisms get into the dictionaries only after they enter the active stock of the language system. True, in recent years, begin to publish special dictionaries of neologisms.

Causes

We have examined archaisms, historicisms, and neologisms. Now a few words about the reasons for their occurrence.

The reasons for the transition of words from active to passivethe vocabulary has not yet been studied in detail. And if with historicalisms all is more or less clear, since after the disappearance of the concept, the word denoting it goes into a passive stock, then with archaisms everything is much more complicated.

The most common are the following reasonsthe emergence of archaisms: various social changes, cultural factors, various linguistic causes — the influence of other languages, stylistic connections, language reforms.

The main reasons for the appearance of neologisms are:

— various changes in the social life of society;

— technical progress, that is the emergence of new objects, concepts and phenomena.

Today, most neologisms are associated with the development of computer science and computer technology.

Stylistic value

A few words about the stylistic role of words in the passive vocabulary of the Russian language. The most frequently used data are groups of words in fiction.

Thus, the use of archaisms helps the writermore accurately recreate the described era, characterize the character with his speech. Surely you noticed that in the speech of some characters, one vocabulary prevails, for example, more modern, in the speech of others — another, outdated or dialectic. Thus, the writer draws a psychological and social portrait of the character.

They also use them in verse speech to give a more solemn, exalted color to the work. In satire, archaisms serve to create a comic or satirical effect, giving irony.

Study at school

Partially archaisms, historicisms, neologismsstudied in school, at Russian language and literature classes. Usually acquaintance with this class of words occurs in the fifth and tenth classes in the study of «Lexicology». Students are taught to distinguish words, to find them in texts of various kinds. In addition, while studying the works of classics, we come across unfamiliar words that have long since disappeared, become acquainted with their meaning, origin.

Studying at the university

A more detailed acquaintance with the active and passivethe vocabulary of the Russian language begins in universities when studying the section «Lexicology». Often this happens in the second year, at the Faculty of Philology. Students are taught how archaisms differ from historicisms, how and where it is possible to find the meaning of these words, how to classify them depending on their origin, determine the function in those or other texts.

Students can make their own dictionaries,learn to find passive vocabulary in texts and replace it, analyze the origin of neologisms, the reasons for the disappearance of words from the active use of the speakers of the literary Russian language.

conclusions

The passive vocabulary of the Russian language includesthe following groups of lexemes: archaisms — obsolete names of words and concepts, historicisms — names of objects and phenomena that have left our everyday life, neologisms — words that are used to denote new concepts.

Disused words are used in fiction when writing historical texts to recreate the atmosphere of the time described in the work.

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Language
is never stationary. New words are constantly being formed; living
words are constantly changing their meanings, expanding, contracting,
gaining or losing caste, taking on mental, moral, or spiritual
significance; and old words, though long sanctioned by custom,
sometimes wither and die.

An
archaism
(Gr. archáios
‘ancient’) is a word that was once common but is now replaced by
a synonym; it remains in the language, but mostly belong to the
poetic style and are used for creating a stylistic effect, e.g.

betwixt,
prep. ‘between’;

A
historism
is a word which denotes a thing that is no longer used; unlike
archaisms, they are not replaced by synonyms. Historisms are very
numerous as names for social relations, institutions, objects of
material culture of the past, e.g. transport means:

brougham
/’bru:(ə)m/,
n. ‘a
horse-drawn carriage with a roof, four wheels, and an open driver’s
seat in front ’;

A
neologism
(Gr
néos
‘new’
and logos
‘word,
study’)
is a new lexical unit introduced into a language to denote a new
object or phenomenon. The term is
first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme.
Neologisms
are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication,
period, or event.

In
January 2002 Collins
Gem English Pocket Dictionary editorial
board
have
registered 140 neologisms.

Collins
Essential English Dictionary
(2003) contains 5,500 new words.

The
Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1999)
includes articles on 2,000 new words and phrases prominent in the
media or public eye in the 80s -90s.

While
the typical lexical growth areas of the 1980s were the media,
computers, finance, money, environment, political correctness, youth
culture and music, the 1990s saw significant lexical expansion in the
areas of politics, the media and the Internet.

Nonce
words (occasional words)
(an ellipsis of the phrase for
the nonce ‘for
the once’) are lexical units created by the speaker on the spur of
the moment, for a given occasion only, and may be considered as
‘potentially’ existing in the English vocabulary, e.g.
what-d’you-call-him
/-her/-it/-them,
n. is used instead of a name that one cannot remember.

A
lot of neologisms resulted from nonce words, e.g. yuppie,
n. ‘a
well-paid young middle-class professional who works in a city job and
has a luxurious lifestyle’;
coach
potato,
soap
opera,
generation
X,
thirty-something,
glass ceiling ‘an
unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially
affecting women and members of minorities’;
gerrymander
/’dʒɛrɪ‚mandə/,
v. ‘manipulate
the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favour one
party or class’.

Lexical
Neologisms

Two
common elements used to produce new words related to the Internet are
cyber—
and
e-:

cybercafé,
n. ‘a
cafe that offers its customers computers with Internet
access’;

cyberterrorist,
n.
‘a
criminal who uses the Internet to do
damage
to computer systems’;

Semantic
neologisms
– new meanings of already existing words – result from semantic
derivation due to the functional mobility of the vocabulary:

virus,
n. ‘a
piece of code which is capable of copying itself and typically has a
detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying
data’;

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This article is about historism as a philosophical and historiographical theory on historicity and awareness of the past. For the similarly used term historicism, see Historicism. For the method of interpreting the biblical apocalypse, see Historicism (Christian eschatology). For a school of art and architecture, see Historicism (art).

Historism (Italian: storicismo) is a philosophical and historiographical theory, founded in 19th-century^[1] Germany (as Historismus) and especially influential in 19th- and 20th-century Europe. In those times there was not a single natural, humanistic or philosophical science that would not reflect, in one way or another, the historical type of thought (cf. comparative historical linguistics etc.).^[1] It pronounces the historicity of humanity and its binding to tradition.

Historist historiography rejects historical teleology and bases its explanations of historical phenomena on sympathy and understanding (see Hermeneutics) for the events, acting persons, and historical periods. The historist approach takes to its extreme limits the common observation that human institutions (language, Art, religion, law, State) are subject to perpetual change.^[2]

Historism is not to be confused with historicism,^[3] nevertheless the English habits of using both words are very similar. (The term historism is sometimes reserved to identify the specific current called Historismus in the tradition of German philosophy and historiography.)^[2]

Notable exponentsEdit

Notable exponents of historism were primarily the German 19th-century historians Leopold von Ranke^[4] and Johann Gustav Droysen,^[5] 20th-century historian Friedrich Meinecke,^[6] and the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey.^[7] Dilthey was influenced by Ranke.^[8] The jurists Friedrich Carl von Savigny and Karl Friedrich Eichhorn were strongly influenced by the ideas of historism and founded the German Historical School of Law. The Italian philosopher, anti-fascist^[9] and historian Benedetto Croce^[10] and his British colleague Robin George Collingwood^[11] were important European exponents of historism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Collingwood was influenced by Dilthey.^[8][12]

Ranke’s arguments can be viewed as an antidote to the lawlike and quantitative approaches common in sociology and most other social sciences.^[13]

The principle of historism has a universal methodological significance in Marxism.^[1]: 127 The essence of this principle, in brief, is

not to forget the underlying historical connection, to examine every question from the standpoint of how the given phenomenon arose in history and what principal stages this phenomenon passed through in its development, and, from the standpoint of its development, to examine what the given thing has become today.

Contemporary thoughtEdit

20th-century German historians promoting some aspects of historism are Ulrich Muhlack, Thomas Nipperdey and Jörn Rüsen.^{[citation needed]}

The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset was influenced by historism.^{[citation needed]}

CriticismEdit

Because of the power held on the social sciences by logical positivism, historism or historicism is deemed unpopular.^[15]

Georg G. Iggers is one of the most important critical authors on historism. His book The German Conception of History: The National Tradition of Historical Thought from Herder to the Present, first published in 1968 (by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Ct.) is a «classic”^[16] among critiques of historism.

Another critique is presented by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose essay Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben (On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, 1874; see The Untimely Meditations) denounces “a malignant historical fever”. Nietzsche contends that the historians of his times, the historists, damaged the powers of human life by relegating it to the past instead of opening it to the future. For this reason, he calls for a return, beyond historism, to humanism.^[17]

Karl Popper was one of the most distinguished critics of historicism. He differentiated between both phenomena as follows: The term historicism is used in his influential books The Poverty of Historicism and The Open Society and Its Enemies to describe “an approach to the social sciences which assumes that historical prediction is their primary aim, and which assumes that this aim is attainable by discovering the ‘rhythms’ or the ‘patterns’, the ‘laws’ or the ‘trends’ that underlie the evolution of history”.^[18] Popper wrote with reference to Hegel’s theory of history, which he criticized extensively. By historism on the contrary, he means the tendency to regard every argument or idea as completely accounted for by its historical context, as opposed to assessing it by its merits. Historism does not aim for the ‘laws’ of history, but premises the individuality of each historical situation.

On the basis of Popper’s definitions, the historian Stefan Berger proposes as a proper word usage:

I deliberately use the term ‘historism’ (and ‘historist’) rather than ‘historicism’ (and ‘historicist’). Whereas ‘historism’ (in German, Historismus), as represented by Leopold von Ranke, can be seen as an evolutionary, reformist concept which understands all political order as historically developed and grown, ‘historicism’ (Historizismus), as defined and rejected by Karl Popper, is based on the notion that history develops according to predetermined laws towards a particular end. The English language, by using only one term for those different concepts, tends to conflate the two. Hence I suggest using two separate terms in analogy to the German language.^[19]

See alsoEdit

• Heinrich Rickert
• Historical school of economics

NotesEdit

ReferencesEdit

• Georg G. Iggers, The German Conception of History: The National Tradition of Historical Thought from Herder to the Present, 2nd rev. edn., Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Ct., 1983, ISBN 0-8195-6080-4.
• Stefan Berger, Stefan Berger responds to Ulrich Muhlack. In: Bulletin of the German Historical Institute London, Volume XXIII, No. 1, May 2001, pp. 21–33 (contemporary debate between a historism-critic and a historism-supporting historian).
• Frederick C. Beiser, The German Historicist Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Frederick C. Beiser, After Hegel: German Philosophy, 1840-1900, Princeton University Press, 2014.
• Wallace, Edwin R. and Gach, John (eds.), History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology: With an Epilogue on Psychiatry and the Mind-Body Relation, Springer, 2008.
• Peter Koslowski (ed.), The Discovery of Historicity in German Idealism and Historism, Springer, 2006.

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PRONUNCIATION OF HISTORISM

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF HISTORISM

Historism is a noun.

WHAT DOES HISTORISM MEAN IN ENGLISH?

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH HISTORISM

TRANSLATION OF HISTORISM

Find out the translation of historism to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «HISTORISM»

The term «historism» is regularly used and occupies the 94.856 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of historism

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «HISTORISM» OVER TIME

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «HISTORISM»

Discover the use of historism in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to historism and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

5 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «HISTORISM»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term historism is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Historism [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/historism>. Apr 2023 ».

Lecture №5. Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary

The English vocabulary can be traditionally subdivided into two large stylistically marked layers: literary words and expressions and conversational words and expressions (the words of the basic stock being stylistically neutral). Each of these large layers is, in its turn, further subdivided into lexical groups (scholars have different opinions on some items of classification). All of them, when used, serve as a source of additional information about the speaker. All the words in English classified as literary can be divided into general literary words and special literary words. Among the general literary words we find many high-flown or learned words. General literary words can be used in all functional styles of speech of its written type; they are common to all fields of knowledge. Archaic and obsolete words, and professional terminology also belong to this vocabulary stratum.

Archaisms very closely verge on the «learned» category. These are words that were common but have been ousted from the language by their modern synonyms and are no longer used in neutral or colloquial intercourse. They remain in the language: they are used in poetry and in official documents, e.g. thou, hereby, damsel, woe, etc. Among archaisms a certain groups of words is sometimes called obsolete words. They are words which have gone out of use and are no longer understood by the present generation: whilom (formerly), wight (fellow), anon (at once), etc. When the thing is no longer used, its name becomes a historism. Historisms are words denoting objects of material culture and phenomena of the past, e.g. the names of ancient transport means (brougham, berlin, hansom, phaeton), types of weapons (a crossbow, a blunderbuss). Changes in society play an important role in the loss of words, since words are often lost because the object or notion they refer to has become obsolete.

A term is a word or a phrase with a fixed meaning, denoting a thing or a process in some branch of science, production or in some other field of human activity, and having acquired certain linguistic characteristics, i.e. it should be monosemantic, have only a denotational meaning, possess no synonyms, e.g. appendix (med.) — a small, narrow tube attached to the large intestine. In medical sphere it is monosemantic. Terms are widely used in newspapers, in official style, and in fiction. The fate of terms may be different. Besides remaining in a certain terminological group a term may be: (1) substituted by another term, (2) determinologized — lose its terminological characteristics and become polysemantic.

Conversational words and expressions may be colloquialisms, slang, dialectisms, vulgarisms, jargonisms. There are three groups of colloquial words: literary, familiar and low colloquial words. Literary colloquial words are used by educated people in everyday intercourse. The sphere of communication of literary colloquial words also in­cludes printed page: they are used by English and American writers of the XXI century. Familiar colloquial is more emotional, free and careless; it is characterized by a great number of ironical or jocular expressions. Low colloquial is a term used for illiterate popular speech; it contains vulgar words and elements of dialect. The basis of distinction between low colloquial and the two other types of colloquial words is social.

Dialectal words reflect the geographical background of the speaker. Differences in language use depend on an individual’s social and geographical background, dialects refer to the language variety based on the user. We may learn a lot about the person’s background by the way a person speaks. Thus, dialect is a regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonological, syntactic, and lexical properties. A dialect is traditionally opposed to Standard English. The English language has several important dialectal subdivisions:

E nglish

B ritish English American English

Northern Midland Eastern Western Southern Northern Midland Southern

Dialectal words are constantly being incorporated into colloquial and standard English. Nevertheless, regional differences in lexical items exist. For example, a sandwich on a large roll with a variety of meats and cheeses may be called a grinder, a sub, a hero, or a poor boy, depending on the region of the USA. Similarly, a carbonated soft drink is called soda in many parts of the United States; in other parts it is called pop, and yet in others it is called tonic or soda pop.

The term «slang» is often used to denote a variety of vocabulary strata that consists either of newly coined words and phrases or of current words employed in special meaning, e.g. school slang, sport slang, newspaper slang, etc. Slang refers to the use of faddish or nonstandard lexical items. Since slang is sensitive to current styles, it changes rapidly. Most slang terms will either disappear from use within a generation or become standardized and, therefore, no longer slang. Words like dwindle, fan, and mob were all once slang terms. Slang is generally considered to be a low form of the language and is most consistently associated with younger speakers. The form of any particular slang will differ according to the interests of the group that employs it. For example, high school students usually group themselves according to their interests and goals, and in most cases, they will employ some slang. Slang is always an informal register and its use in a speech situation requiring a more formal register would be viewed negatively by other participants in the speech event. The slang items have a relatively limited semantic range. That is, the overwhelming majority of forms referred to comparatively few concepts. Many concern the appearance (stud). Other frequently attested semantic domains include aspects of university life, sexual relations, and bodily functions (goon, nerd, to puke).

There is no sure test for deciding when an expression is slang or something else. Most of the words that are labelled “slang” are conversational words of a highly colloquial substandard character whose expressiveness, novelty and certain coarseness make them emphatic and emotive as compared with their neutral synonyms. Some of slang words and phrases have become common in Modern English, e.g. mate, chap, to go in for, it’s up to you, chatter-box and many others. When a register is connected to a particular profession or activity, it may also be characterized by specific vocabulary items known as jargon. Jargon may involve specialized meanings for existing lexical items. There also may be new terms coined specifically for that register. Jargon is generally developed to facilitate communication within the group, it can also be used to indicate membership in the group. Jargon is not always viewed positively.

A neologism (Greek neo — «new» and logos «word») is word, term, or phrase which has been recently created («coined») — often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. Neologisms are by definition «new», and as such are often directly attributable to a specific individual, publication, period or event.

The term «neologism» was itself coined around 1800. It can also refer to an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning. Neologisms are newly coined words, or words that have acquired a new meaning because of social, economic, political, or cultural changes in human society. Neologisms come about by different means: some are imported from other languages, for example, when English-speakers encountered a round bread roll with a hole in it popular among Jews, they simply borrowed the Yiddish word beygel (changing the spelling to bagel). Some phrases are translated from another language (these are called caiques): marriage of convenience translated literally from the French mariage de convenance, and superman, from the German Übermensch. Many are made by combining familiar words or roots to make new combinations, e.g. the Greek word tele, meaning “at a distance”, and the Latin word visio, “sight”, gave the word television. Some words began life as acronyms or other abbreviations: laser is an abbreviation of “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”; AIDS is “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”. New words can be coined or added to the language due to new technologies or any circumstances in which a never-before-communicated idea must be expressed, for example the word Kodak, which was “invented” by G. Eastman in 1888. Many neologisms have come from popular literature: for instance, McJob from Douglas Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, and cyberspace from William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Sometimes the title of the book will become the neologism. For instance, Catch-22 (from the title of Joseph Heller’s novel) and Generation X (from the title of Coupland’s novel) have become part of the vocabulary of many English speakers.

There are different types of neologisms: scientific — words or phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions: black hole (1968), laser (1960); political — words or phrases created to make some kind of political or rhetorical point: political correctness (1990), homophobia (1969); imported — words or phrases originating in another language to express ideas that have no equivalent term in the native language: tycoon (1565), detente (1960s). Trademarks are often neologisms to ensure they are distinguished from other brands: Zyvox, Kleenex. Neologisms belong to both literary and conversational layers, e.g. literary: de-ice, pre-plan, nominee; conversational: telephonee, bloomers, yuppie. New notions constantly come into being, requiring new words to name them. The intensive development of science, industry, means of communication has called forth the invention of new words and phrases, e.g. PC, hardware, Moonscape, pro-choice, electronic virus, micro-surgical, google, suicide bomber, weapons of mass destruction, 9—11 etc. Linguists distinguish three versions of neologisms: unstable, i.e. extremely new, being proposed, or being used only by a very small subculture; diffused — having reached a significant audience, but not yet having gained acceptance; stable — having gained recognizable and probably lasting acceptance.

Every word in a language was, at some time, a neologism, though most of these ceased to be such through time and acceptance. Neologisms often become accepted parts of the language. Other times, however, they disappear from common usage. When a word or phrase is no longer “new”, it is no longer a neologism. Neologisms may take decades to become “old”. Opinions differ on exactly how old a word must be to no longer be considered a neologism; many are accepted very quickly; others attract opposition. At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so called «neology blowup». R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently, especially with the development of computerization. New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants to express his idea in some original way. This person is called «originator». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers, newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.

Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word «umbrella» developed the meanings: «авиационное прикрытие», «политическое прикрытие». A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have transnomination, e.g. the word «slum» was first substituted by the word «ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town». A new lexical unit can be introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have «a proper neologism», many of them are cases of new terminology. Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analize the group of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words used:

a) to denote different types of computers, e.g. PC, super-computer, multi-user, neurocomputer / analogue of a human brain/;

b) to denote parts of computers, e.g. hardware, software, monitor, screen, data;

c) to denote computer languages, e.g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN etc;

d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e.g. computerman, computerization, computerize, to troubleshoot.

There are also different types of activities performed with the help of computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme «tele», e.g. to telework, to telecommute / to work at home having a computer which is connected with the enterprise for which one works/. There are also such words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping / when you can perform different operations with the help of your computer without leaving your home, all operations are registered by the computer at your bank/, videobank /computerized telephone which registers all information which is received in your absence/. In the sphere of lingusitics we have such neologisms as: machine translation, interlingual / an artificial language for machine translation into several languages / and many others. In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which can recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance: finger-print scanner /finger prints/, biometric eye-scanner /blood-vessel arrangements in eyes/, voice verification /voice patterns/. These are types of biometric locks. Here we can also mention computerized cards with the help of which we can open the door without a key.

In the sphere of medicine computers are also used and we have the following neologisms: telemonitory unit /a telemonitory system for treating patience at a distance/. With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as well, e.g. youthquake – волнения среди молодежи, pussy-footer – политик, идущий на компромисcы, Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarliament, Europol etc.

In the modern English society there is a tendency to social stratification, as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well, e.g. belonger – представитель среднего класса, приверженец консервативных взглядов. To this group we can also refer abbreviations of the type yuppie /young urban professional people/, such as: muppie, gruppie, rumpie, bluppie etc. People belonging to the lowest layer of the society are called survivors, a little bit more prosperous are called sustainers, and those who try to prosper in life and imitate those, they want to belong to, are called emulators. Those who have prospered but are not belongers are called achievers. All these layers of society are called VAL /Value and Lifestyles/ .

The rich belong also to jet set that is those who can afford to travel by jet planes all over the world enjoying their life. Sometimes they are called «jet plane travellers». During Margaret Thatcher’s rule the abbreviation PLU appeared which means «People like us» by which snobbistic circles of society call themselves. Nowadays /since 1989/ PLU was substituted by «one of us». There are a lot of immigrants now in UK, in connection with which neologisms partial and non-partial were formed /имеющие право жить в стране и его антоним/.

The word-group «welfare mother» was formed to denote a non-working single mother living on benefit. In connection with criminalization of towns in UK voluntary groups of assisting the police were formed where dwellers of the neighbourhood are joined. These groups are called «neighbourhood watch», «home watch». Criminals wear «stocking masks» not to be recognized. The higher society has neologisms in their speech, such as: dial-a-meal, dial-a-taxi. In the language of teenagers there are such words as: Drugs! /OK/, sweat /бег на длинные дистанции/, task /home composition /, brunch etc. With the development of professional jargons a lot of words ending in «speak» appeared in English, e.g. artspeak, sportspeak, medspeak, education-speak, video-speak etc. There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday life:

a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics/ raw vegetables, crude rice/, longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove, consumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-, veg- /.

b) clothing, e.g. catsuit /one-piece clinging suit/, slimster , string / miniscule bikini/, hipster / trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/, completenik / a long sweater for trousers/, sweatnik /a long jacket/, pants—skirt, bloomers / lady’s sports trousers/.

c) footwear e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs /open sandals/, backsters /beech sandals with thick soles/.

d) bags, e.g. bumbag /a small bag worn on the waist/, sling bag /a bag with a long belt/, maitre / a small bag for cosmetics/.

There are also such words as: dangledolly / a dolly-talisman dangling in the car before the windscreen/, boot-sale /selling from the boot of the car/, touch-tone /a telephone with press-button/. Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed. They are subdivided into: phonological neologisms, borrowings, semantic neologisms and syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms are divided into morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word-groups/.

Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of sounds, they are called artificial, e.g. rah-rah /a short skirt which is worn by girls during parades/, «yeck» / «yuck» which are interjections to express repulsion produced the adjective yucky/ yecky. These are strong neologisms. Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such as «perestroika» /Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, dolce vita /Italian/ etc. Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns existing in the language, therefore they do not belong to the group of strong neologisms.

Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of different types, such as «free-fall» – «резкое падение курса акций» appeared in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the analogy with free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and opening the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall – вызов на диспансеризацию, bioastronomy – search for life on other planets, rat-out – betrayal in danger, zero-zero (double zero) – ban of longer and shorter range weapon, x-rated /about films terribly vulgar and cruel/, Ameringlish /American English/, tycoonography – a biography of a business tycoon. There are also abbreviations of different types, such as teen /teenager/, AIDS-related condition, infection with AIDS/, HIV / human immuno-deficiency virus/. Quite a number of neologisms appear on the analogy with lexical units existing in the language, e.g. snowmobile /automobile/, danceaholic /alcoholic/, airtel /hotel/, cheeseburger /hamburger/. There are many neologisms formed by means of affixation, such as: decompress, educationalist, folknik etc. Phraseological neologisms can be subdivided into phraseological units with transferred meanings, e.g. to buy into/ to become involved/, fudge and dudge /avoidance of definite decisions/, and set non-idiomatic expressions, e.g. electronic virus, Rubic’s cube, acid rain, boot trade etc.

Changes in pronunciation

In Modern British English there is a tendency to change pronunciation of some sounds and combinations of sounds due to the influence of American English and some other factors. These changes are most noticeable in the speech of teachers and students of the universities in the Southern part of England /Oxford, Cambridge, London/.

There are the following changes in pronouncing vowels:

a) shortening of long vowels, especially at the end of the word and before voiceless consonants, e.g. see, keep;

b) lengthening of short vowels before voiced consonants, e.g. big, good, come, jam etc. In such adjectives which end in /d/ lengthening of the vowel is observed all over England, e.g. bad, sad, glad, mad etc.

c) drawling of stressed syllables and clipping of unstressed syllables.

d) In unstressed syllables / — / is pronounced instead of /i/, e.g. /b_`ko:z/, /`evid_ns/ etc.

e) In the words consisting of three or more syllables there is a tendency to have two main stresses, e.g. /`nesə `sə ri/, /`intə `restiŋ/.

f) The diphthong /ou/ is pronounced / u/, e.g. home /h um/, go /g u/.

g) the diphthong /u / is pronounced /o:/, e.g. sure /sho:/.

Vowels can also change under the influence of consonants:

a) after fricatives and consonants /n/ and /m/ /ju:/ is pronounced as /u:/, e.g. resume, music, news, enthusiasm.

b) before fricatives and combinations of fricatives with consonants «a» is pronounced as / ɑ /, e.g. dance, answer, class, fast.

The pronunciation of some consonants is also changed:

a) after a vowel /r/ is pronounced ,e.g. /ka:r/ , /ha:rt/.

b) There appears an intrusive /r/ in the combinations where after the final vowel there is a vowel at the beginning of the next word, e.g. the idea of, Asia and Europe/ on the analogy with word combinations there is, there are/.

c) /p/ and /t/ are glottalized in the middle of the word, e.g. matter, happy.

d) /s/ is used instead of /sh/ before /i/ in the structure of suffixes, e.g. social /`səusiə l/, negotiate / ni`gəusi eit/;

e) /l/ is vocalized at the end of the word, e.g. full /ful/ (close to /v/ in sound).

f) /sh/ is voiced in the intervocalic position in some geographical names, e.g . «Asia», «Persia»;

g) combinations of sounds /dj/, /tj/ , /sj/ in such words as duke, tube, issue have two variants of pronunciation: /d3u:k/ and /dju:k/, /chu:b/ and /tju:b/, /`ishu:/ and /`isju:/;

g) pronunciation approaching spelling is being developed, e.g. often /`oftn/, forehead / fo:`hed/ etc;

h) /t/ and/d/ at the end of words are not pronounced, e.g. «half past five», «old man».

39

Introduction

We often hear about words being added to dictionaries as they become part of everyday vernacular, but have you ever heard about any words that get removed? Some people argue that if a word has existed at some point in time then it merits a place in the dictionary.

After all, who knows when someone may come across it in an old text and need to look up the definition? Others say that dictionaries should reflect the language that we use here and now, and so those words which have become obsolete in everyday language should no longer have a place in the dictionary. Language and culture are constantly changing, so how do we keep up with these changes without losing our past? The article is intended to go back in time and to disclose archaisms in the English language. Different groups of archaisms, the difference between archaisms and historisms, periods of their development, stylistic features, semantic groups and other problems got their reflection in the article.

Different viewpoints of scientists, the aim of using archaisms in belles-lettres and their classification are presented and illustrated by the examples in Russian and English.

How do Words in Everyday Language Become Obsolete?

The vocabulary of a language never remains stable. There are constant changes in the semantic structure of any language. Words appear, undergo a number of phonetic and semantic changes and finally pass completely out of use. The disappearance of various things, phenomena, etc. causes either com­plete disappearance of their names or turns them into «representatives» of a previous epoch.

Many words become obsolete in ordinary language, but remain in poetry, in books conforming to a definite style, in oratory, etc. A great many archa­isms survive in English dialects. Thus the fate of obsolete words may be different. We distinguish two groups of obsolete words: archaisms proper and historical terms (historisms). Before turning to them it is of primary importance to distinguish the terms ”archaic” and ”obsolete”. The terms “archaic” and “obsolete” are used more or less indiscriminately by some authors.

The meaning of these temporal labels, however, can be somewhat different among dictionaries. The label archaic is used for words that were once common but are now rare. Archaic implies having the character or characteristics of a much earlier time. Obsolete indicates that a term is no longer in active use, except, for example, in literary quotation. Obsolete may apply to a word regarded as no longer acceptable or useful even though it is still in existence. In the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin [4th ed.], 2004) the archaic label is described this way: “This label is applied to words and senses that were once common but are now rare, though they may be familiar because of their occurrence in certain contexts, such as the literature of an earlier time.

Specifically, this label is attached to entry words and senses for which there is only sporadic evidence in print after 1755.” The AHD describes the obsolete label thus: “The label obsolete is used with entry words and senses no longer in active use, except, for example, in literary quotations. Specifically, this label is attached to entry words and senses for which there is little or no printed evidence since 1755.” In Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003), the Explanatory Notes say, “The temporal label obs for obsolete means that there is no evidence of use since 1755. The label obs is a comment on the word being defined. When a thing, as distinguished from the word used to designate it, is obsolete, appropriate orientation is usually given in the definition.

The temporal label archaic means that a word or sense once in common use is found today only sporadically or in special contexts.” Random House Dictionary defines an obsolete word as one “no longer in use, esp. out of use for at least a century”, whereas an archaism is referred to as “current in an earlier time but rare in present usage”. However, it should be pointed out that the borderline between “obsolete” and “archaic” is vague and uncertain, and in many cases it is difficult to decide to which of the groups this or that word belongs.

Archaisms Proper: Etymology, Main Features and Usage.

In language, an archaism (from the Ancient Greek: ἀρχαϊκός, archaïkós, ‘old-fashioned, antiquated’, ultimately ἀρχαῖος, archaîos, ‘from the beginning, ancient’) is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately (to achieve a specific effect) or as part of a specific jargon (for example in law) or formula (for example in religious contexts). Many nursery rhymes contain archaisms. Archaic elements that occur only in certain fixed expressions (for example ‘be that as it may’) are not considered to be archaisms. Archaisms proper are obsolete words denoting real things and phenom­ena, but the words themselves are no longer found in ordinary English: they were substituted by others, obsolete words becoming their stylistic synonyms. These words are moribund, already partly or fully out of circulation, rejected by the living language. There are three stages in the aging processes of words:

they become rarely used; they are in the stage of gradually passing out from use; these are the morphological forms belonging to the earlier stage of the development of the language [thee, thou], corresponding verbal endings [thou makest], many French borrowings [palfreu] they have already gone completely out of use and are still recognized by the English-speaking people. [me thinks = it seems to me, nay = no]. archaic words proper is no longer recognizable in modern English; such words were in use during the Old English period, are earlier dropped out of the language or have changed in the appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable [losso =lazy fellow].

While some words become obsolete from everyday language, others still exist but their meaning has changed over time. Words like fun fur have remained in use as their meanings have been adapted to current circumstances. Fun fur used to refer to cheap animal fur that had been dyed in several colors until the 1960s. Today it refers to synthetic fur.

Types of archaisms: lexical and grammatical archaisms and their peculiarities

Generally we distinguish lexical and grammatical archaisms. Grammatical archa­isms are forms of words which went out of use with the development of the grammar system of the English language: -th – suffix of the 3rd person sing., Present Indef. Tense, e.g. hath, doth, speaketh; -st – 2nd person – dost, hast, speakest;

art – 2nd person of the verb «to be» pl.;
thou, thee, thy, thine – pronouns;
ye – plural, 2nd person.

Lexical archaisms. Poetry is especially rich in archaisms. Words that are too well known and too often used do not call up such vivid images as words less familiar. This is one of the reasons which impel poets to use archaic words. They are «new» just on account of their being old, and yet they are not utterly unknown to be unintelligible. The following are some of the most common lexical archaisms used in poetry: billow – война; save – кроме; plain – жаловаться; behold – видеть; yon (yonder) – тот; eke – тоже; brow – чело; foe – враг; ere – до; steed – конь; morn – утро; belike – вероятно; damsel – девушка; woe – rope; oft, oft-times – часто; mere – озеро, пруд; hearken – слушать; albeit – хотя, etc. Their last refuge is in historical novels (whose authors used them to create a particular period atmosphere) and, of course, in poetry which is rather conservative in its choice of words.

So their main function is to sustain a special evaluated atmosphere of poetry. They form an insignificant layer of special literary vocabulary. On the whole they are detached from the common literary vocabulary. Thus, the use of archaic words is a stylistic device. In historical novels they create an atmosphere of the past. In the depiction of events of the present they assume the function of a stylistic device proper. The stylistic functions of the archaic words are based on the temporary perception of the event. Even when used in a terminological aspect they create a special atmosphere in the utterance. They form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary.

1. They are used by authors to produce an elevated (возвыш) effect.
2. They have a tendency to detach themselves from the common literary word-stock and assume the quality of terms denoting certain notions and calling forth poetic diction.

Closely associated with archaisms are poetical words. The use of poetic words doesn’t as a rule create the atmosphere of poetry, but it substitutes its expressiveness. The common way of creating such words is compounding [young-eyed, rosy-fingered]. Poetic words and expressions are understandable to a limited number of readers. In modern poetry words are often used in strange combinations [the sound of shame]. Poetic words in an ordinary environment may also have a satirical function. They can also be found in other styles, e.g. in journalistic style: proceed (go), the welkin (the sky), the vale (the valley), the devouring element (the fire).

Archaic words – yclept (to call, name), quoth (to speak), eftsoons (again soon after) are good examples. They evoke emotive meaning. They color the utterance with the certain air of loftiness (elevation). But generally fail to produce a general feeling of delight. They are taken hacked, too outdate. These words are often used by modern ballet mangers (сочинители баллад). Some poetical words and set expressions make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers. This poetical language is often called poetical jargon.

“Alas! They had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
And to be wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain…”
(Coleridge)

Thou and thy, aye (“yes”) and nay (“no”) are certainly archaic and long since rejected by common usage, yet poets use them even today. (We also find the same four words and many other archaisms among dialectisms, which is quite natural, as dialects are also conservative and retain archaic words and structures). Numerous archaisms can be found in Shakespeare, but it should be taken into consideration that what appear to us today as archaisms in the works of Shakespeare, are in fact examples of everyday language of Shakespeare’s time. There are several such archaisms in Viola’s speech from Twelfth Night:

“There is a fair behavior in thee, Captain,
And though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character.
I prithee — and I’ll pay thee bounteously
— Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent…”
(Act 1, Sc. 2) 32

Further examples of archaisms are: morn (for morning), eve (for evening), moon (for month), damsel (for girl), errant (for wandering, e.g. errant knights), etc. Sometimes, an archaic word may undergo a sudden revival. So, the formerly archaic kin (for relatives; one’s family) is now current in American usage. Archaisms are also most frequently encountered in poetry, law, science, technology, geography and ritual writing and speech. Their deliberate use can be subdivided into literary archaisms, which seeks to evoke the style of older speech and writing; and lexical archaisms, the use of words no longer in common use. Archaisms are kept alive by these ritual and literary uses and by the study of older literature. Should they remain recognized, they can be revived, as the word anent was in this past century. Because they are things of continual discovery and re-invention, scie nce and technology have historically generated forms of speech and writing which have dated and fallen into disuse relatively quickly.

However the emotional associations of certain words (for example: ‘Wireless’ rather than ‘Radio’ for a generation of British citizens who lived through the second world war) have kept them alive even though the older word is clearly an archaism. A similar desire to evoke a former age means that archaic place names are frequently used in circumstances where doing so conveys a political or emotional subtext, or when the official new name is not recognized by all (for example: ‘Persia’ rather than ‘Iran’, ‘Bombay’ rather than ‘Mumbai’, ‘Madras’ rather than ‘Chennai’). So, a restaurant seeking to conjure up historic associations might prefer to call itself Old Bombay or refer to Persian cuisine in preference to using the newer place name. A notable contemporary example is the name of the airline Cathay Pacific, which uses the archaic Cathay (“China”).

Archaisms are frequently misunderstood, leading to changes in usage. One example is found in the phrase “the odd man out”, which originally came from the phrase “to find the odd man out”, where the verb “to find out” has been split by its object “the odd man”, meaning the item which does not fit. The compound adverbs and prepositions found in the writing of lawyers (e.g. heretofore, hereunto, thereof) are examples of archaisms as a form of jargon. Some phraseologies, especially in religious contexts, retain archaic elements that are not used in ordinary speech in any other context: “With this ring I thee wed.” Archaisms are also used in the dialogue of historical novels in order to evoke the flavour of the period. Some may count as inherently funny words and are used for humorous effect.

Historims: Main Features and Classification

Historisms are names of things and phenomena which passed out of use with the development of social, economical, cultural life of society but which retain historical importance. Unlike archaisms, historical terms have no syno­nyms in Modern English: they are only names of things and notions which refer to the past of the English people. The sphere of these words is restricted with scientific literature or with books and novels dealing with certain historical periods. There are lots of his­torisms in the historical novels of W.Scott and other English authors, e.g.: Historisms are very numerous as names for social relations, institutions and objects of material culture of the past. The names of ancient transport means, ancient clothes, weapons, musical instruments can offer many examples. Before the appearance of motor-cars many different types of horse-drawn carriages were in use. The names of some of them are: brougham, berlin, calash, diligence, fly, gig, hansom, landeau, phaeton, etc. It is interesting to mention specially the romantically metaphoric prairie schooner ‘a canvas-covered wagon used by pioneers crossing the North American prairies’.

There are still many sailing ships in use, and schooner in the meaning of ‘a sea-going vessel’ is not an historism, but a prairie schooner is. Many types of sailing craft belong to the past as caravels or galleons, so their names are historisms too. The history of costume forms an interesting topic by itself. It is reflected in the history of corresponding terms. The corresponding glossaries may be very long. Only very few examples can be mentioned here. In W. Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, doublets are often mentioned. A doublet is a close-fitting jacket with or without sleeves worn by men in the 15th-17th centuries. It is interesting to note that descriptions of ancient garments given in dictionaries often include their social functions in this or that period. Thus, a tabard of the 15th century was a short surcoat open at the sides and with short sleeves, worn by a knight over his armour and emblazoned on the front, back and sides with his armorial bearings.

Not all historisms refer to such distant periods. Thus, bloomers — an outfit designed for women in mid-nineteenth century. It consisted of Turkish-style trousers gathered at the ankles and worn by women as “a rational dress”. It was introduced by Mrs Bloomer, editor and social reformer, as a contribution to woman rights movement. Somewhat later bloomers were worn by girls and women for games and cycling, but then they became shorter and reached only to the knee. A great many historisms denoting various types of weapons occur in historical novels, e. g. a battering ram ‘an ancient machine for breaking walls’; a blunderbuss ‘an old type of gun with a wide muzzle’;

breastplate ‘a piece of metal armour worn by knights over the chest to protect it in battle’; a crossbow ‘a medieval weapon consisting of a bow fixed across a wooden stock’. Many words belonging to this semantic field remain in the vocabulary in some figurative meaning, e. g. arrow, shield, sword, vizor, etc. Thus we can distinguish the following types of historisms:

1. words of social position: yeomen – йомен, knight – рыцарь, scribe – писец;
2. names of arms and words connected with war: battle ax – боевой то­ порик, musket – мушкет, visor – забрало, warrior – воин, sword – меч, gauntlet – рыцарская перчатка = латная рукавица, archer – стрелок из лука, spear – копье;
3. types of vessels: galley – галера, frigate – фрегат, caravel – каравелла;
4. types of carts which went out of use: brougham – одноместная карета, chaise – фаэтон, легкая повозка с открытым верхом, hansom – двухместный экипаж, где сидение кучера расположено позади и несколь­ ко выше мест для седоков, coach – карета (почтовая);
5. names of old musical instruments: lute – лютня, lyre – лира. So the number of historisms which reflect the social life and culture of the past is very great.

Conclusion

Though many of the words discussed above are rather old-fashioned, outdate and are rarely used in modern society, they still have a unique place in the depositary of English word-stock. Thus they can be found in bigger dictionaries as they might be relevant to specific fields. Words and their meanings are always bound to specific contexts and times in which their meaning makes sense. Anyone learning a language needs to be aware of how words are used today and historically in order to correctly interpret and understand their meaning. So one should always keep up with the constant changes in language to make sure that their skills are the most appropriate for today’s modern world.

Methodical literature

1. Атрушина Г. Б., Афанасьева О. В., Морозова Н. Н. Лексикология английского языка: Учеб. пособие для студентов. Дрофа, 1999 2. Гинзбург, С. С. Хидекель, Г. Ю. Князева и А. А. Санкин. Лексикология английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. Высш. школа, 1979. 3. Арнольд И. В.

Лексикология современного английского языка: Учеб. для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. М.: Высш. шк., 1986. — 295 с., ил. — На англ. яз.

Internet sources

http://ru.scribd.com/doc/33264944/English-Lexicology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaism
http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/d25.html
http://window.edu.ru/library/pdf2txt/731/67731/41095/page6
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-obsolete-english-words-that-should-make-a-comeback/2/

Definitions For Historism

Noun

HISTORISM. (countable and uncountable, plural HISTORISMs)
(historiography) An influential 19th-century school of thought in historiography that rejected universalist and anachronistic explanations of historical developments and instead emphasized the idiosyncrasy, idiosyncrasies and organic developments of each culture and time period, to be understood through critical interpretation of primary sources in the context of the unique conditions that produced them.

Translations

Dutch: historisme

German: Historismus

Etymology

From {{bor, en, de, Historismus}}.

See also

historicism

Anagrams

hit-or-miss

English International (SOWPODS)
YES

Points in Different Games

Scrabble

Words with Friends

The word Historism is worth 14 points in Scrabble and 14 points in Words with Friends