history-dependent
|his-to-ry-de-pend-ent|
/ˌhɪstəri-dɪˈpɛndənt/
depends on the past
Etymology
'history-dependent' is a compound formed in modern English from 'history' + 'dependent'; 'history' (Old English/Latin/Greek origin) + 'dependent' (from Latin 'dependere' via Old French/Latin-derived forms).
'history' comes from Greek 'historia' via Latin 'historia' into Old English/Middle English as 'history'; 'dependent' derives from Latin 'dependere' (to hang down/from) → Medieval Latin/Old French forms and into Middle English as 'dependent', and the compound 'history-dependent' is a modern English formation combining the two.
Initially, 'history' meant 'inquiry, narrative' (from Greek 'historia'), and 'dependere' originally meant 'to hang down/from'; over time 'history' broadened to mean 'past events' and 'dependent' acquired the sense 'relying on', so the compound came to mean 'relying on past events'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
depending on past events or prior states; whose current state or behavior is influenced by its history.
The material is history-dependent: its response to stress depends on previous load cycles.
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Adjective 2
(technical, stochastic processes) Having dynamics that depend on the entire past trajectory (non-Markovian).
A history-dependent process cannot be fully described by its current state alone; past states matter.
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Last updated: 2025/11/19 10:21