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Please help me!
- Thread starter lyttn
- Start date
- Status
Snowcake
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2008
- Member Type
- Academic
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Germany
- Current Location
- Germany
historic / historical:
Historic and historical have different usages, though their senses overlap. Historic refers to what is important in history: the historic first voyage to the moon. It is also used of what is famous or interesting because of its association with persons or events in history: a historic house. Historical refers to whatever existed in the past, whether regarded as important or not: a minor historical character. Historical also refers to anything concerned with history or the study of the past: a historical novel; historical discoveries. While these distinctions are useful, these words are often used interchangeably, as in historic times or historical times.
economic: relates to economy (adjective)
economy: noun (economy of a country e.g.)
economical: similiar to efficient: using money efficiently without wasting it
I suppose you meant economic / economical
This information is worth reading:
This dilemma has apparently bothered the head of Burchfield a great deal. He writes that of the words that end in -ic or -ical, approximately one-fifth can end in either, with very little difference in meaning. He adds that -ical seems to be preferred in England and -ic in the U.S. On the other hand, for many common pairs — such as comic/comical, ironic/ironical, symmetric/symmetrical — the distribution has nothing to do with geography and is based simply on the rhythms of the sentence. That probably doesn't help at all, does it? There are some words, though, for which there is a difference in meaning — historic/historical, economic/economical — and for those, unfortunately, you must use a dictionary. It's one of those situations in which teachers of English must apologize for the language.
source: Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.
Regards,
Snowcake
Historic and historical have different usages, though their senses overlap. Historic refers to what is important in history: the historic first voyage to the moon. It is also used of what is famous or interesting because of its association with persons or events in history: a historic house. Historical refers to whatever existed in the past, whether regarded as important or not: a minor historical character. Historical also refers to anything concerned with history or the study of the past: a historical novel; historical discoveries. While these distinctions are useful, these words are often used interchangeably, as in historic times or historical times.
economic: relates to economy (adjective)
economy: noun (economy of a country e.g.)
economical: similiar to efficient: using money efficiently without wasting it
I suppose you meant economic / economical
This information is worth reading:
This dilemma has apparently bothered the head of Burchfield a great deal. He writes that of the words that end in -ic or -ical, approximately one-fifth can end in either, with very little difference in meaning. He adds that -ical seems to be preferred in England and -ic in the U.S. On the other hand, for many common pairs — such as comic/comical, ironic/ironical, symmetric/symmetrical — the distribution has nothing to do with geography and is based simply on the rhythms of the sentence. That probably doesn't help at all, does it? There are some words, though, for which there is a difference in meaning — historic/historical, economic/economical — and for those, unfortunately, you must use a dictionary. It's one of those situations in which teachers of English must apologize for the language.
source: Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.
Regards,
Snowcake
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