[ad. mod.L. synchronismus, ad. Gr. συγχρονισμός, f. σύγχρονο- SYNCHRONOUS. Cf. F. synchronisme, It. sins cronismo.]
1. The quality of being synchronous; coincidence or agreement in point of time; concurrence of two or more events in time; contemporary existence or occurrence.
1588. J. Harvey, Disc. Probl., 21. Is there any greater concordance, or Synchronisme, betweene the prophesie of Elias and this text, than [etc.]?
c. 1624. Mede, Wks. (1672), 581. The Apocalypse … hath marks and signs … whereby the Order, Synchronism and Sequele of all the Visions … may be found out.
1697. Bentley, Phal., iv. (1699), 148. The whole tenor of History, confirm’d by so many Synchronisms and Concurrences.
1712. Swift, Art Polit. Lying, Wks. 1755, III. I. 123. It is impossible to explain several phœnomena in relation to the celerity of lyes, without the supposition of synchronism and combination.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Th., 125. Nor is there any synchronism between the most recent epochas of the mineral kingdom, and the most ancient of our ordinary chronology.
1867. Murchison, Siluria, v. (ed. 4), 95. The relative thickness of deposits is no test whatever of their synchronism.
1874. Farrar, Christ, lviii. II. 342. That Eternity, which is the synchronism of all the future, and all the present, and all the past.
b. Geom. The property of being synchronous, as a curve (see SYNCHRONOUS 1 c); spec. of a circle, the property that chords starting from the same point of the circumference will be described in equal times by particles descending under the influence of gravity.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc., s.v. Synchronous, The synchronism of the circle.
2. Arrangement or treatment of synchronous events, etc., together or in conjunction, as in a history; agreement in relation to the time of the events described.
1612. Selden, in Drayton’s Poly-olb., To Rdr. A 2. Upon weighing the Reporters credit, comparison with more perswading authority, and synchronisme, (the best touch-stone in this kind of triall).
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. iii. (1677), 143. The coherence and synchronism of all the parts of the Mosaical Chronology.
1837. Hallam, Lit. Eur., I. iv. § 62 (1847), I. 303. The laws of synchronism … bring strange partners together, and we may pass at once from Luther to Ariosto.
b. (with a and pl.) A statement or argument that two or more events, etc., are synchronous; a parallel drawn between occurrences, etc., in respect of time; a description or account of different events belonging to the same period; a tabular arrangement of historical events or personages according to their dates.
1593. R. Harvey, Philad., 7. Your Synchronisme of Faunus, of Sybilla and Praenestine is to no purpose.
1649. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 214. Which two Kingdoms … are … described in a continued Synchronisme, or Contemporary Parallel.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., VI. § 21. To range them in synchronisms, and try to adjust them with sacred chronology.
1861. O’Curry, Lect. MS. Mat. Anc. Irish Hist., 171. The histories and synchronisms of Erinn.
1888. E. L. Cutts, St. Augustine, vii. 52. We may make a useful synchronism by noting that the time of his residence was in the year following that in which Symmachus had headed a deputation of senators.
1901. Temple, Bible, Exodus, 136 (heading), Synchronism of Ancient History.
c. (a) Treatment of details according to identity of period, as in architecture. (b) Representation of events of different times together, e.g., in the same picture.
1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 158. The question whether synchronism and uniformity of style are essential to beauty and propriety in architecture. Ibid., 160/1. This work is executed with a knowledge of style and detail, with an attention to synchronism … which leaves nothing to be desired.
1854. Fairholt, Dict. Terms Art, Synchronism, a representation of two or more events at the same time; it was a favourite practice with the mediæval artists to give the entire life of a saint, or history of an event, in one picture.
3. Recurrence at the same successive instants of time; the fact of keeping time, i.e., proceeding at the same rate and exactly together; coincidence of period, as of two sets of movements, vibrations, or alternations of electric current.
1854. H. Rogers, Ess. (1874), II. i. 90. Exact synchronism and parallelism of movements, as between those of two exactly regulated chronometers.
1869. Tyndall, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Feb., 231. The heaping up of motion on the atoms, in consequence of their synchronism with the shorter waves.
1873. Jenkin, Electr. & Magn., xxii. 323. The synchronism required is in Caselli’s instrument obtained by a pendulum at each receiving station;… the one pendulum controls the other by a current which it transmits … through a special circuit.
1902. Electr. Rev., 21 Feb., 290/1. A new synchronism indicator for alternators.
Hence Synchronismical a., belonging to a synchronism or account of synchronous events (see 2 b).
1793. Hely, trans. O’Flaherty’s Ogygia, I. 136. The ancient synchronismical account of Flann.
