The official written record of debates and speeches in a parliament or legislative assembly, particularly the British Parliament.
Named after Luke Hansard (1752-1828), a British printer who first published the official records of Parliamentary debates. The term became so associated with quality legislative records that it's now used generically for such documents in many Commonwealth nations.
Hansard created the first systematic way to preserve exactly what politicians said—now imagine if we had Hansard-style records of every speech by historical figures; we'd have way fewer debates about 'what they actually meant'!
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