historial

Historial is a masculine noun in Spanish that denotes a record or file containing past events or data about a person, organization, or system. It can refer to a sequence of data over time or to a compilation of notable occurrences. The term comes from historia, via Latin and early Romance usage; in practice, historial often overlaps with registro and expediente but emphasizes continuity and cumulative data rather than a single entry.

Its most common uses include historial clínico (medical history), historial académico (academic record), historial laboral (employment history), and historial crediticio (credit history). In information technology, common phrases are historial de navegación (browser history), historial de cambios or historial de versiones (change history or version history), which describe logs of actions, edits, or software revisions. In legal or administrative contexts, el historial de un caso or historial de antecedentes can refer to a case file or record of past incidents; however, more specific terms like antecedentes penales are often used for criminal history.

Usage notes: historial often implies a longitudinal record that informs current assessment or decisions. It differs from historia, which denotes the study or narrative of past events rather than a compiled file. Synonyms include registro, expediente, and archivo. The plural form is historiales.