chronesthesia

Etymology

From chron- + -esthesia.

chronesthesia means the awareness of the passage of time, and of the past and future. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.

Why “chronesthesia” is a great word

CHRONESTHESIA — [Noun] The conscious awareness of subjective time and the cognitive capacity to project oneself into the past or future. From the combining form chron- (from Greek χρόνος, "time") and -esthesia (from Greek αἴσθησις, "sensation, perception"). Coined by Endel Tulving in the early 2000s. Unlike chronognosia (which denotes the objective measurement of clock time) or episodic memory (which refers to the specific recall of past events), chronesthesia is the foundational, subjective theater where time is not measured but felt and traveled. It is the sudden, vivid transport to a childhood kitchen upon smelling burnt toast, the anxious rehearsal of a conversation not yet had, and the peculiar stillness of realizing a long-imagined future has now become the slipping-away present. We are the only animals haunted, and blessed, by the persistent, ghostly company of our other selves across time.

noun

The awareness of the passage of time, and of the past and future