Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

historical present en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The present tense as used when referring to real past events, to add immediacy to what is being said or written.
  2. (uncountable) The present tense as used when writing a fictional narrative.
    • Mr. Rothstein comes in," Scher said, "it must have been about none o'clock. Every night he comes in here [Scher, like so many Broadway habitués, spoke most often in the historical present, rather than the past, tense. Damon Runyon faithfully reproduced this patois.] Regular as clockwork he comes in here. 2016, Leo Katcher, The Big Bankroll: The Life And Times Of Arnold Rothstein:
    • In most dialects, the historical present is used quite freely to convey the sense of more vivid narrative, to retell dreams, plots, tell jokes, etc. 1972, William Labov, Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English, page 47:
    • Cross-linguistically, the historical present tends to be used to increase vividness by substituting the perspective of the ongoing speech situation for that of the narrative. 2001, Daniel E. Collins, Reanimated Voices: Speech reporting in a historical-pragmatic perspective, page 91:

Relateds

literary present

Synonyms

narrative present · historic present · present historic · dramatic present

Translations (13)

nl praesens historicum (tense) · ro prezent istoric (tense) · no historisk presens (tense) · hu történelmi jelen (tense) · la praesēns histŏrĭcum (tense) · bg сегашно време в миналото (tense) · fr présent historique (tense) · is söguleg nútíð (tense) · is frásagnarnútíð (tense) · el ιστορικός ενεστώτας (tense) · pl czas teraźniejszy historyczny (tense) · de historisches Präsens (tense) · ga láithreach stairiúil (tense)