Earth & SkyGreek → English
Chronology
/krəˈnɒlədʒi/noun
The arrangement of events in the order they happened, or the science of dating them.
The Greek roots
χρόνος
khrónos
time
-λογία
-logía
study, account
Literally: “the reckoning of time”
The story of the word
Greek had two words for time: χρόνος for measured duration and καιρός for the right moment, a distinction English has to explain in a clause. Scaliger built modern historical chronology in 1583 by cross-checking eclipse records against Greek, Roman and Egyptian calendars. Chronos the primordial god of time is a separate figure from Kronos the Titan, though the two were merged in later antiquity.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
chronicanachronismsynchronizechronometer
In a sentence
The witnesses agreed on every fact and disagreed on the chronology.