Historical means to do with the past and its study. Historical records, a historical novel, historical accuracy.
It is worth keeping apart from historic, which means important enough to be remembered: every day is historical and very few are historic. A historical novel is set in the past; a historic decision changes the future.
1adjectivehistoricalTo do with the past and its study.
“The library has a large collection of historical maps of the city.”
historical is a quality of the past.
From Latin historicus, from Greek historia, an inquiry or account, from histor, one who knows.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyd-
Middle English
historie
English
history
English, today
historical
Built from
From historicus + al. by surface analysis, history + -ical. history comes from Middle English historie. From Middle English historie, from Old French estoire, estorie (“chronicle, history, story”) (French histoire), from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (“learning through research”), from ἱστορέω (“to research, inquire (and) record”), from ἵστωρ (“the knowing, wise one”), from Proto-Indo-European weyd- (“see, know”). a doublet of story and storey. Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John Gower, Confessio Amantis, which was aimed at an educated audience familiar with French and Latin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA