[:en]History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning “inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation”) is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.

History can also refer to the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyse a sequence of past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine them. Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing “perspective” on the problems of the present.

The Greek word was borrowed into Classical Latin as historia, meaning ‘investigation, inquiry, research, account, description, written account of past events, writing of history, historical narrative, recorded knowledge of past events, story, narrative’. History was borrowed from Latin (possibly via Old Irish or Old Welsh) into Old English as stær (‘history, narrative, story’), but this word fell out of use in the late Old English period.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
—George Santayana[:zh]歷史（現代漢語詞彙，古典文言文稱之為史），指人類社會過去的事件和行動，以及對這些事件行為有系統的記錄、詮釋和研究。歷史可提供今人理解過去，作為未來行事的參考依據，與倫理、哲學和藝術同屬人類精神文明的重要成果。歷史的第二個含義，即對過去事件的記錄和研究，又稱歷史學」，或簡稱「史學」。隸屬於歷史學或與其密切相關的學科有年代學、編纂學、家譜學、古文字學、計量歷史學、考古學、社會學和新聞學等，參見歷史學。[3]記錄和研究歷史的人稱為歷史學家，簡稱「史學家」，中國古代稱為史官。記錄歷史的書籍稱為史書，如《史記》、《漢書》等，粗分為「官修」與「民載」兩類。

【本字】「歷」之甲骨文，从秝从止，或从林从止。「秝」，从二禾，象稻禾稀疏地排列之形，《說文解字》：「秝，稀疏適秝也」，讀若「歷」。「止」本字象一隻腳掌，意思跟今字「趾」同，「趾」乃「止」之累增字。

【本義】經過禾地或叢林，取「經歷」之意，《說文解字》：「歷。過也」。過去之事乃引伸義。

【字形演變】後創「厤」字，加「厂」。「厂」字本義是崖邊的山洞，《說文解字》：「厂。山石之厓巖，人可居」，字義是居於洞內整理禾稻。《說文解字》：「厤。治也」，治理乃引伸義，「厤」同時是「曆」之本字。後來，「厤」加「止」成「歷」字，字義為整理過去之事，「歷」字通而「厤」厤字湮。

『那些不記得過去的人，注定要重蹈覆轍。』
———-哲學家 桑塔亞那
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