Diachronic
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The adjective diachronic (from Greek elements dia "through" and chronos "time") means "historically", "over time". It is generally opposed to synchronic. It is used, for example, in:
- diachronic or historical linguistics, the study of how languages and language families change over time. Opposed to synchronic or descriptive linguistics, which studies a language at a specific point in time.
- diachronic distinction or diachronic contrast, between two entities that existed in different epochs, e.g. between the archaic English verbal suffixes -eth and the modern ones -s/-es. Opposed to a synchronic distinction, between two co-exisiting entities, e.g. between the English pronouns he and she.
- diachronic process, in modern philosophy of mind, a process that occurs over a long period of time.
