chronology

Chronology begins in Greek χρόνος (chronos), "time," used widely by the 5th century BCE. Greek writers formed χρονολογία (chronologia) to mean a systematic account of time. The compound links chronos with -logia, "account" or "study." The earliest sense was ordering, not storytelling.

Latin adopted chronologia by the 1st century CE in scholarly contexts. Medieval Latin preserved it for the organization of dates, especially in annals. By the 16th century, European humanists used chronology for the science of arranging events by time. The term carried a technical tone rather than a narrative one.

English absorbed chronology in the 16th century, with attestations in the 1570s. It entered first through learned writing on calendars and ancient history. The meaning expanded from a discipline to any ordered timeline. The core idea stayed the same: time in order.

Today chronology is both the method and the sequence itself. It names the arrangement of events by date and the list produced by that arrangement. It also appears in practical contexts like project plans and legal filings. The word still holds the Greek frame of time and account.