What’s a chyron? The graphical overlay occupying (approximately, at least) the lower third of TV broadcasts, particularly news. So named apparently for a major manufacturer of equipment used for said overlaying; “aston” in the UK, also after a manufacturer. Neat.
This bit of news production lingo via a quasi-apology from someone at Fox News. Vocabulary enrichment via PR damage control.
But where the heck does “chyron” come from? Was it invented by the corporation so named? Was it a surname of a founder? Some brief, impatient googling didn’t get me anywhere. The OED has an entry for “chironomy”, with the primary definition being this:
The art or science of gesticulation, or of moving the hands according to rule in oratory, pantomime, etc.
And while I can make a leap from oratorical handwaving to cable news talking heads, it’s not a leap I’m all that comfortable with.
I imagine a whole lot of newsreaders are asking themselves what the hell this word is, today.
When I hear a TV person use ‘chyron’ I hear ‘I’ve been in the business since it was analog’. The young turks say ‘DSK’ unless they’re pandering to the boss.
hi, just a notion, off the cuff, on the fly, etc., – the term might have an intermediate derivation spun from having a deaf- sign-language translator embedded in a lower corner as a picture-in-picture commentary… this seems close-enough to the greek-dramatic- staging- etymological-source you mention; thence, -the jump to the current neologism seems likely enough, i reckon.
i assume you’re conversant with the writings of Marshall McLuhan, particularily his last: “The Laws Of Media”. If you are not, then do get a-browsing that most lucid “mentat”-sage’s contributions to the Noosphere, to your profound “‘embettermeant’”, sir!
[oh, and this bemusement may have yet escaped your notice:
http://narya.phys.cwru.edu/~pete/cgi/html_thrummer.cgi
-i hope it's new to you, as i'd be delighted to introduce such like minds!]
Shadrak_Rhadamanthus_The_ShadowSphynx /aka: Doctor Static / Vex Vuthor / Uncle_Sumer / . . .
I just floated the same query on Twitter and searched on web generally (this thread was one find). I like the theory of the pantomime gesturer commenting on the script for the deaf.
It emerges, however, that Chyron was one of those brand/company names, like Electrolux [US] or Hoover [UK] for vacuum-cleaner, which became generalised to a device of the same kind not necessarily made by that company.
So we’re into the murky territory of the derivation of a trademark in the mind of a compay “creative”.
I think his/her train of thought may hve run from chiros (hand as in chiropractic of chiromancy [palmistry] to handwriting to “character generation”.
The y in Chyron is a bit out-of-band for that, since it usually reflects a Greek upsilon rather than the iota in “ch[e]iron”. Our creative probably just thought it looked more appealingly strange and Greek, like the occasionally-found and similarly unjustified “sphynx”.
Thanks for the thoughts, albeit nearly two years on.