A Historic vs. An Historic

A Historic vs. An Historic A Historic vs. An Historic A Historic vs. An Historic By Maeve Maddox My post A Useful Reminder About ‘An’ prompted an outpouring of emails asking, â€Å"How about an history or an historic?† Some points of English usage stir strong feelings. Placing the indefinite article â€Å"an† in front of the words historical or historic is one of these. Here are some comments prompted by a post I wrote on this topic several years ago: When people use â€Å"an historical† on NPR, it’s because [they’re] snooty. Only a Cockney or an hidiot [would say] â€Å"an historic.† [People who defend â€Å"an historic†] are pseudo-intellectual, American linguistic â€Å"posers.† For certain Americans, it’s all about self-consciously pompous affectation! I  would never ever use â€Å"an† in front of any word with an aspirate H at the beginning. That just isn’t what it’s for, and it sounds pretentious. The simple facts about the use of â€Å"an historical† and â€Å"an historic† are these: 1. Style guides like The Chicago Manual of Style, The AP Stylebook, and The Penguin Writer’s Manual regard the following as correct in modern usage: â€Å"a historical event† â€Å"a historic event.† 2. Many speakers still say and write â€Å"an historical†Ã¢â‚¬â€œand they do so with no intention of sounding affected, pompous, or pretentious. Pronunciation changes from generation to generation, but never in one fell swoop. Pockets of older forms continue to exist even after the majority of speakers have made the switch and authorities have recorded the new rules. The Google Ngram Viewer provides an interesting look at the progress of â€Å"an historic† vs â€Å"a historic.† In 1800, â€Å"a historic† barely shows. It begins its rise in the 1820s. In 1869, â€Å"a historic† is neck and neck with â€Å"an historic.† The two travel along fairly close together until the First World War when â€Å"an historic† pulls ahead and dominates until 1938. After that, â€Å"a historic† becomes the clear winner, although â€Å"an historic† and â€Å"an historical† remain in use. Here are two recent examples of the use of â€Å"an historical† in the context of educated English: Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to the truth of what actually happened during an historical event or time period.  (Note on the New York University library site.) The Making of Southern Europe: An Historical Overview (title of a recent publication of the London School of Economics) Clearly, modern usage prefers â€Å"a historic† and â€Å"a historical,† as well as a before other â€Å"h words† that readers asked about: â€Å"a hotel,† â€Å"a horrible accident,† and â€Å"a horrific statistic.† The word herb (succulent plant used for seasoning) is pronounced both with and without an aspirated h. â€Å"A herb† is modern British pronunciation, although British author Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) wrote â€Å"an herb† in one of her novels. Many Americans–although by no means all–say â€Å"an erb† and write â€Å"an herb.† Unquestionably, accepted current practice is to use the indefinite article a in front of all but a very few words that begin with the letter h. The most common exceptions are: an heir to the throne an honorable man an honest man an hour or two Speakers who say â€Å"an historic† are not necessarily being â€Å"pretentious or snooty.† It could be that they learned the usage from family members and teachers educated in earlier generations. Follow the style guide of your choice. Save your linguistic wrath for things like, â€Å"Me and my brother graduated from Georgetown.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Creative Writing 1015 Brainstorming Strategies for WritersAppropriate vs. Apropos vs. Apt

The Influence of the Renaissance in Shakespeares Work

The Influence of the Renaissance in Shakespeares Work It’s very easy to think of Shakespeare as a unique genius with a singular perspective on the world around him. However, Shakespeare was very much a product of the radical cultural shifts that were occurring in Elizabethan England during his lifetime. When Shakespeare was working in the  theater, the Renaissance movement in the arts was peaking in England. The new openness and humanism are reflected in Shakespeare’s plays. The Renaissance in Shakespeares Time Broadly speaking, the Renaissance period is used to describe the era when Europeans moved away from the restrictive ideas of the Middle Ages. The ideology that dominated the Middle Ages was heavily focused on the absolute power of God and was enforced by the formidable Roman Catholic Church. From the 14th century onward, people started to break away from this idea. The artists and thinkers of the Renaissance did not necessarily reject the idea of God. In fact, Shakespeare himself may have been Catholic. The Renaissance cultural creators did, however, question humankind’s relationship to God. This questioning produced enormous upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy. And the new focus on humanity created new-found freedom for artists, writers, and philosophers to be inquisitive about the world around them. They often drew on the more human-centered classical writing and art of ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration. Shakespeare,  the Renaissance Man The Renaissance arrived in England rather late. Shakespeare was born toward  the end of the broader Europe-wide Renaissance period, just as it was peaking in England. He was one of the first playwrights to bring the Renaissance’s core values to the theater. Shakespeare embraced the Renaissance in the following ways: Shakespeare updated the simplistic, two-dimensional writing style of pre-Renaissance drama. He focused on creating human characters with psychological complexity. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example of this.The upheaval in social hierarchy allowed Shakespeare to explore the complexity and humanity of every character, regardless of their social position. Even monarchs were portrayed as having human emotions and were capable of making terrible mistakes. Consider King Lear or Macbeth.Shakespeare utilized his knowledge of Greek and Roman classics when writing his plays. Before the Renaissance, these texts had been suppressed by the Catholic Church. Religion in Shakespeares Time Elizabethan England endured a different form of religious oppression than that which had dominated the Middle Ages. When she took the throne, Queen Elizabeth I forced conversions and drove practicing Catholics underground with her imposition of the Recusancy Acts. These laws required citizens to attend worship in Anglican churches. If discovered, Catholics faced stiff penalties or even death. Despite these laws, Shakespeare did not appear to be afraid to write about Catholicism nor to present Catholic characters in a favorable light. His inclusion of Catholicism in his works has led historians to hypothesize that the Bard was secretly Catholic. Catholic characters included Friar Francis ( Much Ado About Nothing),  Friar Laurence (Romeo and Juliet), and even  Hamlet. At the very least, Shakespeare’s writing indicates a thorough knowledge of Catholic rituals. Regardless of what he may have been doing secretly, he maintained a public persona as an Anglican. He was baptized in and buried at  Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, a Protestant church.