Seriously?
You’re not kidding me nor anyone?
Then please let us know — in the comments below — for you might well be the only English speaker that knows.
And we’re always eager to learn.
The two are the same
According to etymonline.com…
Story is from the Latin storia = story.
History is from the Greek historia = knowing the past.
Everybody knows that by the time a story is told, it’s the past.
This proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that story and history are identical. Each is about knowing the past and there’s no difference between the two.
What happened?
What happened is the inventors of English words took at the same time storia from Latin and historia from Greek. But they didn’t translate the two. Instead, they simply pronounced them in English.
Pronouncing Greek and Latin words in English — storia and historia are no exception — is a tradition that’s been upheld ever since.
What happened elsewhere?
Elsewhere, French word-users only know histoire (story in French) and German word-users only know Geschichte (story in German).
That means when French and German word-users are told histoires and Geschichten respectively, they know they re being told stories.
Only English word-users wonder how history got in and why it’s not herstory.
Stories & word-users
The majority of word-users don’t know the difference between stories that happened and stories that didn’t.
The only thing that matters to the majority is the story is true.
Instead of believing in lies, the majority of word-users would be well advised to ask the important questions instead.
Everybody knows lies repeated are believed and lies have been told for thousands of years.
What’s the big deal?
You might say story and history are nothing but words, so how is not knowing the difference between the two a big deal?
Well, words is how we aim at what we’re looking for.
So the question is right back to you.
Are you looking for lies or for knowing the past?
Wordless, not stupid
Like every animal’s child, our children too are born wordless, but they’re not born stupid
But when lies are repeated for thousands of years, the children believe them just like the adults before them.
That’s because habits are are difficult to break — too light to be felt initially, but chains too heavy to be broken after that, is how it usually works.
- ”Strange times are when old and young are taught falsehoods in school.” – Plato
- “The school system is the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.” – Marshall McLuhan
- “Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last past what you can see and turn against you. Careful the story you tell. That is the spell.” – Steven Sondheim
- “Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” – Bertrand Russel
- “Some people, unable to go to school, are more educated and more intelligent than college professors.” – Maya Angelou
- “It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the Earth as though I had a right to be here.” – James Baldwin
- “When I look back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.” – Paul Simon