diachronicadj.
/dʌɪəˈkrɒnɪk/ 1. Lasting through time, or during the existing period.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > [adjective]
longOE
timefulc1390
voluminousa1661
protensive1673
diachronic1857
durational1881
1857 P. H. Gosse Creation 87 The two creations—the extinct and the extant—or rather the prochronic and the diachronic—here unite.
2. Linguistics. [translating French diachronique (F. de Saussure a1913, in Cours de linguistique générale (1916) iii. 120).] Pertaining to or designating a method of linguistic study concerned with the historical development of a language; historical, as opposed to descriptive or synchronic. Also transferred, in Anthropology, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [adjective] > synchrony, diacrony, or panchrony
synchronic1922
diachronic1927
panchronic1931
diachronistic1933
diachronous1936
synchronous1936
synchronistic1937
panchronistic1949
synchronical1949
1927 Mod. Philol. No. 218 De Saussure..outlines the relation of ‘synchronic’ to ‘diachronic’ linguistics.
1938 R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnol. Theory xii. 228 We..ought to study the changes going on before our eyes: a ‘synchronic’ approach must be combined with a ‘diachronic’ one.
1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Social Anthropol. iii. 61 Social anthropologists generally study synchronic problems while historians study diachronic problems.
1957 R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. (new ed.) p. v Contemporary and historical (or, in the terminology of modern linguistics, synchronic and diachronic) grammar are..best treated separately.
1968 Assoc. Teachers of Russian Jrnl. 17 8 Diachronic study..is concerned with the movement of a language through time, with the changes that occur in all its planes and the reasons for them.
Derivatives
diaˈchronically adv.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [adverb] > synchrony, diachrony, or panachrony
synchronously1923
synchronically1935
diachronically1937
synchronistically1949
diachronistically1957
panchronically1957
1937 O. Jespersen Analyt. Syntax xvii. 60 A view which is historically (diachronically) impeccable.
1967 C. L. Wrenn Word & Symbol 13 So too must the whole cultural significance of a country be examined with a minute appreciation of its language seen diachronically if its literature is to be fully apprehended.
diˈachrony n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > synchrony, diachrony, or panchrony
panchrony1931
synchrony1931
diachrony1959
diachronism1962
synchronism1962
1959 W. Baskin tr. F. de Saussure Course in Gen. Ling. i. iii. 81 Everything that has to do with evolution is diachronic. Similarly, synchrony and diachrony designate respectively a language-state and an evolutionary phase.
1963 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 9 54 The synchrony and diachrony of language are reflected in the synchrony and diachrony of grammatical theory.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1857