crony
pronunciation
How to pronounce crony in British English:
UK [ˈkrəʊni]
How to pronounce crony in American English:
US [ˈkroʊni]
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- Noun:
- a close friend who accompanies his buddies in their activities
Word Origin
- crony
- crony: [17] Crony originated as a piece of Cambridge university slang. Originally written chrony, it was based on Greek khrónios ‘longlasting’, a derivative of khrónos ‘time’ (source of English chronicle, chronology, chronic, etc), and seems to have been intended to mean ‘friend of long-standing’, or perhaps ‘contemporary’. The first recorded reference to it is in the diary of Samuel Pepys, a Cambridge man: ‘Jack Cole, my old school-fellow … who was a great chrony of mine’, 30 May 1665.=> chronic, chronicle, chronology
- crony (n.)
- 1660s, Cambridge student slang, probably from Greek khronios "long-lasting," from khronos "time" (see chrono-), and with a sense of "old friend," or "contemporary."
Example
- 1. Crony capitalism and corruption are endemic .
- 2. It has become a form of crony capitalism , at great global expense .
- 3. Their fortunes were also boosted by monopolistic power and crony capitalism .
- 4. The strange brew of crony capitalism and command economy creates a market nobody believes in .
- 5. But interventionist industrial and financial policies bred crony capitalism and were a drag on future growth .