A few senryu thoughts on sync, synchronize, synchronicity
Synchronicity?
five syllables? you kidding?
that is a whole line!
back before cellphones
people would sync their watches
none showed the same time
Synchronize your watch
spies said that in old movies
no one wears one now
synced across the states
people pour outdoors, stare up
same time, sun’s eclipse
dancing with Winter
words revealing minds in sync
nothing is real. So?
It occurs to me there is a danger in writing haiku / senryu using a random word from the daily post. When you get a long-ass word, there goes your poem. Laughing. Thank goodness “sync” is the short form for “synchronize”.
(A quick aside: I thought daily post had “synchronicity” up which is 5 syllables but now it looks like “synchronize” which is only 3. Was it my imagination? )
The origin of words fascinate me. Synchronize was coined in the 1620s from the Greek synkhronizein which came from synkhronos.
Just a quick aside on synchronicity, a term coined by Jung in the 1950s from “synchronic”. He added “ity” and just like that a new word was made. Now “synchronic” itself was a relatively new word coming about in 1833 by shortening “synchronical” which dates back to the 1600s.
These days we take a hatchet to make a word. “Sync” shortened “synchronization” in the 1920s or 1930s. Now that’s a great word for haiku.
Ok, so we have followed the trail back to “synchronical”. That word was derived from the Late Latin synchronus. Oh, yeah, that’s where we started! “Synchronize” also came from “synkhronos”. I did a search for “word origin synchronous” and up popped this cool graphic by google.
Cool! The greek word “sun” means together and is linked with time. Our own word “sun” for the big guy in the sky comes from the latin “sol” so isn’t related. Still sunkhronos starts me thinking about sundials and time. Somehow this historical dance of words leaps from ancient greek sundials to the total eclipse of the sun 2017. People around the country in different timezones but at the same actual time, in sync, look up.
References:
Synchronize
Daily Prompts
The Daily Post
“sync”. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 24 Aug. 2017. <Dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sync
“synchronic”. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 24 Aug. 2017. <Dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/browse/synchronic
synchronize
Online etymology dictionary
google search for “word origin synchronous”
Original Photograph: Pocket Watch by annca
On Amazon: A couple etymology books, “synchronize your watch – back to the future” t-shirt, and the blue-ray set of “Back to the Future” movies. The etymologicon caught my attention mostly because the reviews made it sound awesome. Anne Mills wrote:
“This amusing book explores some of the more obscure linkages between apparently unrelated English words. In doing so, it takes the reader on a merry tour of word origins, word borrowing, word change, and word almost everything. It is more of a “Hey look at this” book that a “these relationships suggest that — ” book, but if you are looking for fun with English words it is a good place to go. Would make a great stocking stuffer for word mavens.“
The Etymologican: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language |
Dictionary of Word Origins: The Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words |
Synchronize your watch – Back to the Future tshirt, adult xxlarge |
Back to the Future – The complete adventures – Blu-ray |
disclaimer: I signed up as an Amazon associate. I made my first sale! I am getting 40 cents, lol. If anybody buys anything at Amazon through my links, I get a small percentage back. Amazon doesn’t decide if they accept you until they look at your site after a first purchase. So hopefully I will get my acceptance notification soon. Books are 4.5% but other things vary from 0-10%. I think Amazon requires the following text: “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”