crony

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹoʊni/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹəʊni/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊni

Etymology 1

Coined between 1655 and 1665 from Ancient Greek χρόνιος (khrónios, “perennial, long-lasting”) (English chrono- (“time”),^[1] initially as Cambridge University slang,^[2][3][4][5] in sense of “chum”, as “friend of long standing”,^[6] with illegal connotation later.^[7]

Early spellings included chrony, as in 1665 diary by Samuel Pepys,^[6] supporting the Greek origin.

Noun

crony (plural cronies)

1. (informal, originally Cambridge University) A close friend.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:friend

   Antonym: noncrony

   • 1819 June 23, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 91:

     Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favour.

2. (informal) A trusted companion or partner in a criminal organization.

Alternative forms

• chrony (obsolete)

Derived terms

• crony capitalism
• cronydom
• cronyish
• cronyism
• cronyist
• cronyistic
• cronynomics
• noncrony
• Tony crony

 

Translations

close friend

Armenian: please add this translation if you can Basque: adixkide, lagun xahar Bulgarian: близък приятел m (blizǎk prijatel) Chinese: Mandarin: 挚友 (zh) (zhìyǒu), 裙带 (zh) (qúndài) Czech: kámoš (cs) m, kumpán (cs) m Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: semu Finnish: kaveri (fi) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Freund (de) m, Kumpan (de) m Hungarian: haver (hu) Khmer: សន្ធានមិត្ត (sɑntʰien mit), កល្យាណមិត្ត (km) (kɑlyaan mit) Korean: 옛벗 (yetbeot) Malay: kuncu Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: kompanjong m, kumpan m Nynorsk: kompanjong m, kumpan m Portuguese: parceiro (pt) m Romanian: prieten la cataramă m Russian: ко́реш (ru) m (kóreš) (slang) Spanish: amigote m Swedish: stallbroder (sv) c, kumpan (sv) c, funtfadder c, vän (sv) c Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: please add this translation if you can

partner in crime

Czech: kumpán (cs) m

References

1. “crony”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
2. "Crony" at Dictionary.com
3. “AskOxford: crony”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, 2008 October 3 (last accessed), archived from the original on 13 March 2020
4. Richard Reeves, NS Essay – “Friendship is the invisible thread running through society.” April 19, 2004
5. “Cronyism: The New Sleaze.” BBC News. December 23, 1998
6. “The I’s Have It”, William Safire, The New York Times. October 30, 2005
7. “That Single Word.” Juan L. Mercado, The Ilocos Times, September 24, 2006

Etymology 2

Noun

crony (plural cronies)

1. (obsolete) An old woman; a crone.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     Marry not an old crony.

Anagrams

• Conry, corny, croyn, cry on