Timeless: Words Built on CHRON

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The Latin word for time is “chronos”, derived from the Greek word “khronos.” English words containing the morpheme “chron” relate in some way to time.

MONDAY - Chronic (adjective)

Something is described as “chronic” if it persists over a long period of time.  For some reason, only unpleasant, unwelcome things tend to be called “chronic.”  We don’t tend to say that someone is “chronically kind” or that someone has “chronic good health.”  Instead, we have phenomena like chronic fatigue syndrome, an unshakeable exhaustion and malaise that is difficult to explain or treat.  There are all kinds of chronic illnesses, such as asthma, which can be treated but not cured. There are also chronic teacher shortages, chronic traffic problems, chronic political divisions. Whatever is chronic is likely to be tiresome.

TUESDAY -  Chronicle  (noun and verb)

A chronicle is a narrative, often specifically a historical one, that presents events in the order in which they occurred (i.e. chronological order). Various newspapers use the word chronicle in their names, for example The Daily Chronicle. Chronicle is also a verb, meaning to tell a story. In an autobiography, an author may chronicle the events her early life or notorious career.  A historian chronicles the rise and fall of a civilization or the beginning and end of a war.  So another word for storyteller is chronicler.

WEDNESDAY - Synchronize  (verb)

The prefix “syn” means “with.”  To synchronize is to coordinate events so that they happen at the same time.  If you are having a dinner party, you want to synchronize the preparation of the various dishes you are serving so that they will be ready at the same time. If you are arranging to meet someone, you may want to synchronize your watches (AKA, chronometers), so that you are both punctual.  And of course, synchronized swimmers manage to keep their movements absolutely identical over time so that they move like a precise aquatic machine.

THURSDAY - Diachronic, Synchronic (adjective)

The prefix “syn” means “with” or at the same time” and “dia” means “throughout,” or over time. Diachronic and synchronic are perspectives that can be taken when regarding a phenomenon. People who study languages, for example, use both a diachronic approach, studying how a language evolves over time, and a synchronic approach, taking, in effect, a snapshot of a language system as it exists at one point in time

FRIDAY -  Anachronism (noun)

The prefix “ana” means “against,” so something is called an anachronism if it is “against time,” violating the order in which things occur.  We might laugh at a person who holds onto outdated ideas as an anachronism.  Anachronisms also appear in works of art. Shakespeare’s plays are full of anachronisms because the Elizabethans did not subscribe to the idea that plays should be accurate renderings of historical realities. For example, in the tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra invites her waiting woman to join her in a game of billiards, a game which did not exist in ancient Egypt.  Anachronisms can also be unintentional.  If you are watching a movie set in 1945 but spot a 1965 Corvette parked on the street, you’ve caught an anachronism

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