χρόνιος

Forms

χρόνῐος (khrónios) m (feminine χρονίᾱ, neuter χρόνῐον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”) + -ιος (-ios), an adjective of time with the common suffix of appurtenance.^[1][2][3] The base χρόνος (khrónos) is the ordinary Greek word for time.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Odyssey (17.112), where a son is welcomed home “after a long time”, long awaited.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Homer, lyric and tragedy it is used almost like an adverb of a person who comes or is seen at last, after a long time, and of events long delayed.^[5][4] From this grew the senses “slow, tardy”, as Euripides says of justice and of the gods' doings, and “lasting a long time”: Pindar speaks of excellence that endures, Thucydides of a long campaign and Plato of long imprisonment.^[4][5] Theophrastus applied it to perennial plants, opposed to annual ones; in the Hippocratic writings and after them it was the medical word for a chronic, long-lasting illness, a use continued by Epicurus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dioscorides, Galen and Paul of Aegina.^[4]

Modern Greek keeps it as the learned χρόνιος (chrónios), of a long-lasting unpleasant state of affairs and of a chronic disease.^[6][3] The English slang word crony, first recorded in the 1660s at Cambridge, is probably from χρόνιος, in the sense of an old friend or a contemporary.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of a son welcomed home after a long time.^[2][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of lasting excellence, and Aeschylus of long spells without sailing.^[4][8]
• 5th century BC – Euripides calls justice and the gods' doings slow, and the Hippocratic Aphorisms use it of chronic diseases.^[4][8]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of a campaign expected to last long.^[4][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of perennial plants.^[4][8]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it of chronic diseases.^[4][8]
• 1660s – The English word crony is first recorded, probably from χρόνιος.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned word χρόνιος (chrónios) means long-lasting, chiefly of troubles and diseases.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Coming or happening after a long time; of persons, almost as an adverb, at last; of events, long-awaited or long-delayed.^[4][5]
2. Slow to act, tardy.^[4][5]
3. Being or remaining so for a long time: long away, long absent.^[4]
4. Long-continued, lasting; of plants, perennial.^[4]
5. (medicine) Of illnesses, chronic.^[4][3]

Word family

• βραχυχρόνιος (brakhukhrónios)
• μεταχρόνιος (metakhrónios)
• ὀλιγοχρόνιος (oligokhrónios)
• πολυχρόνιος (polukhrónios)

Related words

• χρόνος (khrónos)
• English crony

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
3. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge