Chrononyms and the Time Identity
This paper intends to argue that Chrononymy – the denomination of time divisions – have been only descriptive or designative, because time is still far from being understood. So, this study of Chrononymy focuses on the examination of the names of temporal phenomena, and its goal is to discover the initial motivation of a given chrononym as well as the moment and circumstances in which the primitive semantic layer was broken, redirecting a new fluid of meaning through new ramifications of meanings, or its semantic emptying. It is assumed that the Chrononymy, or way of naming the time, used by civilizations, reveals kinetic-astral, space environmental, religious and, metaphorical motivations. In this way, Chrononymy would envelop descriptions of these phenomena from the perspective of the paradigms of each epoch, which, when uncovered, rescues the basic scientific and anthropological reference of temporal identity eclipsed by continuous semantic emptying. It is sought a theoretical anchor in authors as Bakhtin (1990), Dick (1990, 1998), Piettre (1997), among others, and analyze etymology and historical-semantic flow for terms like second, minute, week, month, year, century, age, and its chrononimic subdivisions, with the purpose of identifying the nominee’s motivations.
