Erich Schroder asked about a source for "proper" usage of the terms
"historic" and "historical." Both Ed Reed and James R. Beall's answers
effectively give the distinction. For a more descriptive, less
prescriptive source on usage, see _The American Heritage Dictionary_,
2nd ed. (1985), whose usage panel effectively agrees with Fowler but
also recognizes that the terms usages actually overlap:
 
          "_Historic_ refers to what is important in history . . . .
          _Historical rferes to whatever happened in the past, whether
          regarded as important or not . . . . The differentiation
          between the words is not complete. They are often used
          interchangeably: _historic_ _times_ or _historical_
          _times_." (under the entry for _historic_)
 
Sorry that this puts you on the wrong end of the argument, but it is a
feeling I know we have all had too often.
 
Tom Shields
 
E. Thomson Shields, Jr.
Roanoke Colonies Research Office
c/o Department of English
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
(328) 757-6715
Bitnet: ENSHIELD@ECUVM1   Internet: [log in to unmask]