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chronology

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kɹəˈnɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/[1]
  • US: /kɹəˈnɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin chronologia,[2][3][4][5][6] perhaps also influenced by Middle French chronologie, recorded from 1579.[3][7][8] The Latin word is formed from Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”) and -λογία (-logía, “discourse, study”),[2][5][9] the sources of chrono- and -logy.[7][6][10] The OED notes that it seems to date only from the 16th century: a “Chronologia temporum” was published at Basel in 1532.[2][2] Etymonline calls the further origin of the Greek noun uncertain.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The science of computing time and of arranging events by their dates: 1593, in R. Harvey's Philadelphus;[2][3] the Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1585.[4] Barnhart notes that chronologer implies the word before 1572.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the learned art of working out dates and periods, which Johnson (1755) defined as computing the revolutions of the sun and moon and assigning each past event to its year.[2][9] From 1614 it was also used of a single table, list or treatise of dates,[2][7] and so of the order in which particular events happened, as in the chronology of the war.[7][11] A sense "chronicle, history" was short-lived (1604–1623).[2] The adjective chronological is recorded from 1614, in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World.[3]

Timeline

  • 1593 – the science of computing time and dating events.[2][3] The Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1585.[4]
  • 1604 – a chronicle or history (obsolete by 1623).[2]
  • 1614 – a chronological table, list or treatise.[2]
  • 1610s – a particular account of the order of past events.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The arrangement of events in the order in which they happened: The detective pieced together the chronology of the evening.[11][4][2]
  2. A table or list of events in chronological order.[11][4][2]
  3. The science of measuring time and of working out the dates and order of past events.[11][4][2]

Word family

  • chronologist
  • chronologer
  • chronological
  • chronologize
  • dendrochronology
  • geochronology
  • glottochronology
  • tephrochronology

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins