historicize

verb

his·​tor·​i·​cize hi-ˈstȯr-ə-ˌsīz 

-ˈstär-

historicized; historicizing

transitive verb

: to make historical

intransitive verb

: to use historical material

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

There is perhaps nothing harder or less rewarding to historicize than a bruised ego. —Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 16 Jan. 2023

It is used to historicize the conflict between the family and their nemesis, the white Landry/Boudreaux families. —Tanisha C. Ford, The Atlantic, 7 Sep. 2022

Perhaps Fukuyama’s evolution is a cue to instead historicize liberalism as a regional ideology that has shaped a few large countries, over a few recent centuries. —Krithika Varagur, The New Yorker, 25 May 2022

Keret said his father fought to humanize and historicize the Holocaust, to see it as more than a story of unmitigated oppression. —Gal Beckerman, New York Times, 30 Aug. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined at transitive sense