historically

English

Etymology

From historical +‎ -ly or historic +‎ -ally.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Adverb

historically (comparative more historically, superlative most historically)

1. In a historic manner; with reference to history or the historical record.

   Historically speaking, this company has always collected payment before starting work.

   Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically.

2. According to history: formerly, in the past, traditionally.

   Historically, this company collected payment before starting work.

3. To an unprecedented or extremely rare degree.
   • 2018 February 23, Michelle Goldberg, “The De-Trumpification Agenda”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     In January, the anti-corruption organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, released a detailed report on the historically unethical presidency of Donald Trump.

Usage notes

Historically serves as the adverb for both historic and historical. Thus, the distinction that is often made between these two adjectives (see the usage notes there) is lost for the adverb.

Translations

in a historic manner

• Albanian: historikisht (sq)
• Azerbaijani: tarixən
• Catalan: històricament (ca)
• Czech: historicky (cs)
• Esperanto: historie (eo)
• Estonian: ajalooliselt (et)
• French: historiquement (fr)
• Galician: historicamente
• Georgian: ისტორიულად (isṭoriulad)
• Italian: storicamente (it)
• Japanese: 歴史的 (ja) (rekishiteki)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: historisk (no)

  Nynorsk: historisk

• Polish: historycznie (pl)
• Portuguese: historicamente (pt)
• Romanian: istoricește (ro)
• Russian: истори́чески (ru) (istoríčeski)
• Spanish: históricamente (es)
• Swedish: historiskt (sv)
• Turkish: tarihen