long time
- DJ’s chronic back pain often kept him from football practice, but the post-game internal
bleeding lasted only a day. - Chronic is usually associated with something negative or undesirable: chronic illness,
chronic failure, chronic depression. You would be much less likely to encounter a reference
to chronic success or chronic happiness, unless the writer or speaker was being ironic. - A chronic disease is one that lingers for a long time, doesn’t go away, or keeps coming
back. The opposite of a chronic disease is an acute disease. An acute disease is one that
comes and goes very quickly. It may be severe, but it doesn’t last very long.
CHRONICLE (KRAHN uh kul) n a record of events in order of time; a history
- Sally’s diary provided her mother with a detailed chronicle of her daughter ’s extracurricular
activities. - Chronicle can also be used as a verb: The reporter chronicled all the events of the
revolution. - Chronology and chronicle are nearly synonyms: Both provide a chronological list of events.
Chronological means “in order of time.”
EMPATHY (EM puh thee) n identification with the feelings or thoughts of another
- Shannon felt a great deal of empathy for Bill’s suffering; she knew just how he felt.
- To feel empathy is to empathize (EM puh thyze), or to be empathic (em PATH ik): Samuel’s
tendency to empathize with creeps may arise from the fact that Samuel himself is a creep. - This word is sometimes confused with sympathy, which is compassion toward someone or
something, and apathy (AP uh thee), which means indifference or lack of feeling. - Empathy goes a bit further than sympathy; both words mean that you understand someone’s
pain or sorrow, but empathy indicates that you also feel the pain yourself.
EULOGY (YOO luh jee) n a spoken or written tribute to a person, especially a person who
has just died
- The eulogy Michael delivered at his father’s funeral was so moving that it brought tears to
the eyes of everyone present. - To give a eulogy about someone is to eulogize (YOO luh jyze) that person. Don’t confuse
this word with elegy, which is a mournful song or poem.
MISANTHROPIC (mis un THRAHP ik) adj hating mankind
- A misogynist (mis AH juh nist) hates women.
- The opposite of a misanthrope (MIS un throhp) is a philanthropist (fuh LAN thruh pist).
NEOLOGISM (nee OL uh ji zum) n a new word or phrase; a new usage of a word
- Some people don’t like neologisms. They like the words we already have. But at one time