History

English word "history" means "the aggregate of past events". What does this "aggregate of past events" actually mean? It basically means a story about what happened....

This is famous gusle player and epic poems singer Rajko Ivković. Born in 1880, in the village Gradovi on mountain Rudnik in Serbia. Survived 3 wars. Had many stories to tell. 

According to the official etymology the word "history" comes from Middle English, from Old French "estoire, estorie" ‎which means "chronicle, history, story", from Latin "historia" which means "account, story", from Ancient Greek "ἱστορία" ‎(historía) which means "learning through research, narration of what is learned", from "ἱστορέω" ‎(historéō) which means "to learn through research, to inquire", from "ἵστωρ" ‎(hístōr) which means "the one who knows, the expert". Proposed PIE root is "*widstōr" ‎which is supposed to mean "knower, wise man", from Proto-Indo-European "*weyd-" meaning "‎to see".

Now how does one become an expert? By doing something for a long time and building the knowledge through experience. 

"*widstōr" ‎is supposed to mean "knower, wise man"...But "widstōr" literally means "someone who has seen a lot"...

A wise man is man with long experience. An old man usually. A man with life long experience. Who has seen a lot in his life and has learned a lot from what he has seen. He had to. He survived to tell tale...

In Slavic languages the word "vid" means to see. 
In Slavic languages the word "ved, dialectic vid" means to tell, story, knowledge, expertise.  

In Slavic languages we have another word "star". According to the official etymology this word comes from Proto Slavic "*starъ" (star) which means old. Now proposed further root is Proto-Balto-Slavic "*staʔros" meaning old, from PIE "*steh₂-ro-" from "*stati" meaning to remain, to stay, to survive...Which is what old (star) people are good at doing. They are good at surviving. This is how they got to be old. 

So you find a wise old man (vid star) and listen to his stories. And hopefully you will learn something from them which will help you to one day become a wise old man who will have a lot of stories to tell. 

Now how do you know who is a wise old man? Basically in the past, any old man was a wise old man. 

In Slavic languages we have a word "je" which means "is". According to the official etymology this word is a shortened from "jȅst" meaning "to be". The official etymology then goes to say that this Slavic root comes from Proto-Slavic "*estь" which means "to be", from PIE "*h₁es-" which means "to be". 

Now in South Slavic languages the word "je" means "is" but also "it is". As "it is" the word "je" is short of "jes" (pronounced yes) meaning "it is". So the word "jest" comes from "je(s)" + "to" = "(it) is" + "that" and means "to be". You can see that the root is the word "je(s)" meaning "is", "it is". 

Anyway...

If you are looking for an old man, you would look for someone who "is old", which in Slavic languages would be "je star"...

Now let's look again at the Ancient Greek root of the word "history": "ἵστωρ" ‎(hístōr) which means "the one who knows, the expert". Looks suspiciously like "jestar" = "je star" = "is old" = "wise". 

Now let's look again at the Ancient Greek word derived from this ancient "root": "ἱστορέω" ‎(historéō) which means "to learn through research, to inquire". After a lot of research, inquiring, you eventually, if you have learned anything, get old. In Slavic languages "got old" is "je ostario"...

If the old man was unlucky enough to live during the "heroic" times of war, but was lucky enough to survive the war and come home as a victor, he would have had a lot of interesting "heroic" stories to tell. These stories about heroic deeds, which returning heroes would tell to their compatriots were eventually turned into heroic poems or stories by bards, who then passed them on from generation to generation. Until eventually one day someone wrote down these heroic poems or stories and they became histories, the stories of old told by those who survived long enough to become old, to become "ἵστωρ" "jestar", the wise old man...