historiaster
/hɪstɔɹiˈæstəɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
5
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Humbly inscribed to those two celebrated historiasters, Mr. [John] Oldmixon, author of the History of the royal House of Stuart, &c. &c. &c. and Mr. Samuel Chandler, author of the late History of persecution."
- "A human sacrifice is here clearly indicated. This mysterious cavern, with its diabolical associations, […] leave an impression which the efforts of those historiasters who endeavor to whitewash Tiberius cannot weaken with all their arguments."
- "We next meet our historian—or historiaster, if the name might be coined to describe him—on one of the comparatively rare occasions where he is dealing mostly with undisputed facts."
- "Speaking of a series of trials for treason held at Antioch, of which he [Ammianus Marcellinus] does not recollect all the grim details, he excuses himself with the words: "As the full particulars of what was done have escaped my memory, I shall describe succinctly what I can recall to mind." "But this is shocking," some scientific historiaster of our own day will exclaim. "There must have been an official record of the trial; he should have consulted that." The answer is, of course, that under that iron despotism Ammianus had as much chance of inspecting official documents of state trials as a German scholar in the last decade would have had of perusing the secret archives of the Gestapo."
Etymology
Probably borrowed from New Latin historiaster, from Latin historia (“history”) + -aster (suffix denoting incomplete or partial resemblance, and hence sometimes having a derogatory connotation). Historia is derived from Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ (hĭstorĭ́ā, “systematic observation, inquiry; knowledge or written account of such an inquiry”), from ῐ̔στορέω (hĭstoréō, “to ask, inquire; to examine, observe; to record”) (from ῐ̔́στωρ (hĭ́stōr, “one who knows law and right, judge; wise man; witness”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”)) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Analyzable as history + -aster.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hɪstɔɹiˈæstəɹ/
- British English: /hɪstɔːɹiˈæstə/