χρονικός

Forms

χρονῐκός (khronikós) m (feminine χρονῐκή, neuter χρονῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”) + -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A treatise on plants transmitted under Aristotle's name has the word, but the work is of doubtful authorship; the first secure records are in the historians of the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus, who speaks of a chronological arrangement, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who uses the feminine plural for chronicles.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Plutarch uses it of chronological tables and calls annals or chronologies τὰ χρονικά.^[4][5] Grammarians gave it technical senses: Apollonius Dyscolus calls the adverbs of time χρονικά and uses it of vowel quantity, and much later Eustathius speaks of the temporal augment.^[4] In philosophy Plotinus sets it, as “of time”, against what concerns place, and the emperor Julian speaks of creation in time.^[4]

The neuter plural τὰ χρονικά, the books of annals, became Latin chronica, misread as a feminine singular, and through French gave English chronicle, while chronicus gave English chronic, first of lasting diseases.^[2] Modern Greek uses it as a learned word, χρονικός (chronikós), for whatever concerns time, and in grammar for words that express time.^[6]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus use it of chronological works.^[4][3][7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of chronological tables and calls annals τὰ χρονικά.^[4][5][7]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus calls adverbs of time χρονικά.^[4][7]
• 3rd century AD – Plotinus opposes it to what concerns place.^[4][7]
• c. 1300 – English has chronicle, from the Latin borrowing of τὰ χρονικά.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or concerning time, temporal.^[4]
2. Chronological; as a neuter plural noun, annals, chronology.^[4][5]
3. (grammar) Expressing time; of quantity; of the temporal augment.^[4]

Related words

• χρόνος (khrónos)
• Latin chronicus
• English chronic
• English chronicle

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge