Once upon a time, SternData <subscribed-lists@sterndata.com> said:
> Years ago, I used a tool called CED and PCED on DOS systems.  I could
> type in "abc" and press an up-arrow and it would walk back through my
> stack of DOS commands showing only those with "abc" in them.
>
> There's *got* to be a similar tool for bash, but my google-fu is weak today.

In addition to keyboard shortcuts...

history | grep abc | less

If what you're looking for came from a different, now closed, terminal window, try

grep $HISTFILE abc | less