The rest is history
Historic vs historical, and whether to use the indefinite article “a” or “an” before words that start with “h”
Authors often confuse the adjectives historic and historical. Unfortunately, these words are not interchangeable, but understanding when to use one word over the other is relatively easy. Use of the indefinite article “a” or “an” before words that start with an “h” is a bit more difficult to explain, and many people have strong feelings about which is correct.
Historical
Historical describes something related to history, or something from the past. For example, I am a member of the Camberwell Historical Society. At our last meeting we saw examples of historical surgical equipment used by local hospitals in the 1800s.
Historic
On the other hand, the word historic refers to people, places and things of significance in the past, in other words, things that have importance in history. When I toured the battleground at Gettysburg, I was touring the location of a historic battle. When I saw the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, I was reminded that the moon landing was a historic moment in the history of space exploration.
A or An?
“A” and “an” are both indefinite articles; they are used before nouns to indicate that the noun is referring to a general thing, and not a specific thing.
For example, the sentence “I rode a horse last weekend” uses the indefinite article “a”. We don’t know what sort of horse is being described, or whether it is my horse or that of a friend.
Whether to use “a” or “an” before words follows these rules:
“A” is used when the next word starts with a consonant sound.
“An” is used when the next word starts with a vowel sound.
You would use “a” before the words “cow”, “horse” and “historic moment”, and “an” before the words “apple”, “emu” and “hour”.
Some people have strong feelings supporting the use of “an” before the words historic and historical. This likely comes from variations in the English language where “h” words are more commonly pronounced with the initial “h” sound either unstressed or nearly inaudible.
Think of the language Dickens used in his book Pickwick Papers, where he is replicating Cockney slang. The accent commonly omits consonants, particularly at the start of words, like “ere” for “here”. This is called an “unvoiced h” or “h-dropping”, and it is common not only in historical English but also in some modern English dialects. There are many academic studies published online about this phenomenon; if you are interested, have a look on the internet.
Note also that in recent times elements of the English language, particularly variations in pronunciation, have become markers of social and economic difference. H-dropping can carry with it a stigma of low levels of education, as it is often a feature of British working-class English. There are also many academic studies about the stigmatisation of h-dropping available on the internet.
So, should you should use “an historical” or “an historic” in your professional writing? The answer could be “yes”, if you speak using an h-dropping dialect of the English language, particularly if you are publishing your writing for a regional publication. However, if this is not the case, you may risk sounding outdated or incorrect to the English speakers who will be reading your publication, especially to speakers of American English, where h-dropping is rare.
