In the majority of academic work the word history/historic/historian etc. is preceded by the word 'an' rather than 'a' despite the absence of a vowel sound at the beginning of the words. This bothers me as in all other cases it would be 'a' as opposed to 'an', but its almost universal usage prompts me to use 'an' when writing academically. Is there a correct usage?
From my own understanding of grammar it's 'a' history rather than 'an'. Using 'an' history is an Americanism, which I've never heard used in Britain.
/r/askGrammarians
My understanding (and my personal usage habit) is to use 'an' prior to any form of history, however, I do agree, it makes little sense. Originally this was meant to apply to words like 'hour,' where the H sound has little emphasis, but somewhere along the line it became common to apply the rule to different forms of 'history' as well.
Just another one of those many obnoxious English grammar rules that contradicts a bunch of other rules.