ˈnatural ˈhistory
[history n. 5.]
1. A work dealing with the properties of natural objects, plants, or animals; a scientific account of any subject written on similar lines.
| 1567 [see history n. 5]. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. x. 43 b, Plinie in his naturall history writeth [etc.]. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iii. i. 117 Every naturall Historie is of it selfe pleasing, and very profitable. 1626 Bacon New Atl. (1658) 16 That Natural History, which he wrote of all plants. 1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. No. 198. 667 [Mr. Bannister] was most likely to have given us a very good Natural History of that place. 1831 Rennie Montagu's Ornith. Dict. p. xxxi, Nobody..could ever dream of designating any of these [works]..a Natural History. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. ii. i. §8 If a Natural History of the human feelings is at all possible. |
2. The aggregate of facts relating to the natural objects, etc., of a place, or the characteristics of a class of persons or things. Also transf. the details of any subject treated in a similar manner.
Freq. in the titles of works, and so tending to pass into 1.
| 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 163 Let him read the naturall histories of the Asse, and the Sheepe, in Aristotle, Pliny, or Gesner. 1677 Plot (title) The Natural History of Oxford-shire, Being an Essay toward the Natural History of England. 1766 Swinton in Phil. Trans. LVII. 111 The natural history of these..insects is sufficiently known. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIV. 645/1 A short sketch of what may be called the natural history of the physical sciences. 1805 Weaver tr. Werner's Fossils 1 Mineralogy or the natural history of fossils. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 621, I..got a good deal of material for a work on the Natural History of Governors which I do not intend to publish. |
3. Originally, the systematic study of all natural objects, animal, vegetable, and mineral; now restricted to the study of animal life, and freq. implying a popular rather than a strictly scientific treatment of the subject.
| 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 47 Many other stories were told us..relating more to natural History than Travels. 1682 Grew Anat. Plants Pref., Without shewing any purpose of managing this Part of Natural History. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wm. (1767) I. vii. 284 Of Natural Philosophy I consider Natural History as a part. 1816 Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 109 Another incident in natural history..is..Toads eat larks! 1855 Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 11 It is a question whether Natural History would have ever attained its present honours, had not Geology arisen. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds p. vii, Persons indifferent to the pleasures of Natural History, except when highly-coloured pictures are presented to them by popular writers. |
| attrib. 1851 Lit. Gaz. 12 July 483/1 The Natural History Section of the British Association. 1877 Nature 21 June 137/1 The organisation of natural history museums. |
† b. In concrete use. (See quot.) Obs. rare—1.
| 1749 Phil. Trans. XLVI. No. 491. 6 An Account of Glasses..for preserving Pieces of Anatomy or Natural History in spirituous Liquors. |
Hence ˈnatural hiˈstorian, a writer or authority on Natural History; ˈnatural-hiˈstorical a., belonging to Natural History.
| 1665 Hooke Microgr. 27 There are many examples found in Natural Historians, of Springs that do ebb and flow. 1780 J. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 379 There is a handsome statue of M. Buffon, the great natural historian. 1825 Beddoes Let. in Poems (1851) p. xlvii, Blumenbach..is, I fancy, of the first rank as mineralogist, physiologian, geologist, botanist, natural-historian, and physician. a 1850 Rossetti Dante & Circ. ii. (1874) 267 Works..whose subjects are genealogical, historical, natural-historical, and even theological. 1884 Daily News 28 Aug. 2/2 A natural-historian who told us all about the height of Lundy Island. |