Why do people use the word "cronie" yet they don't know the definition?

Question

It means friends. Yet people being the sheeps that they are hear the word used to describe Bush and think it means evil or bad. I guess they use the word to be fashionable about it since it is used to describe the President yet they don't know the definition. Why do people use the word "cronie" yet they don't know the definition?

Answer 1

Etymologies containing "CRONIES": Crony. (references)

Modern Usage: CRONIES

Screenplays
Listen up, needle brain, Buffy and I have taken out four of your cronies, not to mention your girlfriend. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer)

Movie/TV Titles
Phoney Cronies (1942)
Two Old Cronies (1901)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Stephen watched the three glasses being raised from the counter as his father and his two cronies drank to the memory of their past.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Economic History
Somalia

Economic crisis, brought on by the cost of anti-insurgency activities, caused further hardship as Siad Barre and his cronies looted the national treasury. (references)

Burma
The government withdrew all foreign exchange licenses and reissued them to trusted business cronies and banned (and then revoked) the transfer of funds between foreign exchange accounts. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"CRONIES" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "CRONIES" is used about 107 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (plural)100%10731,463

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

German
Kumpane (side kicks). (various references)

Indonesian
konco-koncoan (cronies with each other, crony system), berkonco (be cronies, have cronies). (various references)

Pig Latin
oniescray
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Cr/Cronies.html

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Why do people use the word "cronie" yet they don't know the definition?
It means friends. Yet people being the sheeps that they are hear the word used to describe Bush and think it means evil or bad. I guess they use the word to be fashionable about it since it is used to describe the President yet they don't know the definition. Why do people use the word...

Answer 3

Yeah, crony means 'close friend' but it can also mean 'follower' or someone who goes along with the gang of friends. It can work in the positive or negative, but it's usually supposed to be positive. I think 'henchmen' would probably be a better word than cronies when referring to the Bush gang in a negative way.

Answer 4

I have never heard it used to decribe the president- I have always heard people say (not referring to anyone specific) things like "me and my cronies . . ." " his cronies . . ." ". . .hanging out with his cronies" etc I have always understood it to mean pals or cohorts- I can't say that I have heard it in any other context

. . .and not trying to be a nitpicker , I generally don't do this but my hubby does this to tease me and it is one of my pet peeves so I have to say it - it is "being the sheep that they are" not sheeps!! :)

Answer 5

Cronie means you belong to this type of group friends closed neat ones

Answer 6

are you daft? cronie has negative connotaions that did not come from nowhere. and second the focus of the statements in which this word was used would have to have refered to the alleged "self sustaining, enriching, pocket-linning" activities that have allegedly benefited the Chief and his associates both political and social.

Answer 7

Yes it can mean an OLD FRIEND/s
It most likely comes from the word CRONE its self meaning an OLD WOMEN past child bearing age.
just as we use the terms baby, child , teenager, adult.
Maiden, Mother, Crone
kid, youngster, sir.
All definitions of the different stages of life.