synchronus

Forms

synchronus (feminine synchrona, neuter synchronum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σύγχρονος (súnkhronos, “contemporary”),^[2][3][4] a compound of σύν (sún, “with, together”) and χρόνος (khrónos, “time”).^[4][1] Köbler calls the further origin of the Greek word for time unclear.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Jerome, in the preface to his commentary on the Twelve Prophets, meaning “contemporary”.^[2][3][4] L&S take it there as an adjective, Georges as a noun, “a contemporary”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Niermeyer records it in Medieval Latin with the same sense.^[5] The Renaissance humanist Tortelli noted that Jerome had used it and glossed it with contemporanei, and Lascaris called the poet Sosiphanes of Syracuse a synchronus of Euripides.^[6] From the Late Latin word English formed synchronous in the 1660s.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it in the preface to his commentary on the Twelve Prophets.^[2][3][4]
• 1660s – English synchronous is formed from the Late Latin word.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Contemporary, living or happening at the same time.^[2][5][1]

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A contemporary.^[3][6]

Related words

• English synchronous

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com