historique

Historique is a French term that functions primarily as an adjective meaning historical or relating to history, and also as a noun referring to history itself or to a historical record. In everyday French, it appears in phrases such as étude historique (historical study), document historique (historical document), or fiche historique (historical file). It is commonly encountered in museum labels, archives, scholarly writing, and in administrative or genealogical contexts where past events, periods, or sources are described.

Etymology and development: historique derives from Old French historique, which in turn comes from Latin historia and Greek istoria. The sense broadened over time from recounting a narrative to indicating the study, documentation, and factual record of past events. In modern French, the form is used as an adjective for both masculine and feminine subjects (historique remains historique in feminine form, with plurals historiques).

Usage and scope: As an adjective, historique describes things tied to history or past periods, such as une période historique or archives historiques. As a noun, l’historique can denote the history of something (the history up to now) or the historical record or file, for example dans l’historique d’un dossier or consulter l’historique d’un site web. In English-language contexts, historique is usually translated as historical or history, but the French term persists in bilingual texts or specialized discourse.

See also: history, historiography, archive, chronicle, genealogy, museology.