chyron

English

WOTD – 17 June 2016

A screenshot of an Al Jazeera English news programme showing Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. A chyron at the bottom of the screen identifies him and explains the context of the broadcast.

Etymology 1

A genericization of the trademark of the Chyron Corporation, which was named in reference to Chiron, a centaur in Greek mythology.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kīrŏn
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪɹɒn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪɹɑn/
• Homophone: Chiron
• Hyphenation: chy‧ron

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

chyron (plural chyrons)

1. (US, television) A set of graphics or words at the bottom of a television screen, sometimes unrelated to the current viewing content.
   • 1982, Judy Woodruff, Kathleen Maxa, “This is Judy Woodruff at the White House”, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 63:

     Chyrons (electronically enlarged words or numbers superimposed on the screen) might be used to illustrate and compare budget figures or to emphasize a quote.

   • 1999, Rodger W[illiam] Claire, Entertainment 101: An Industry Primer, Beverly Hills, Calif.: Pomegranate Press, →ISBN:

     Chyron recognition: A celebrity who needs no electronically inserted title or caption (a chyron) to identify him or her on television, especially news programs or interview shows.

   • 2004, James T. Hamilton, All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 170:

     The ABC broadcast also began to use Chyrons, which "generated brightly colored maps, charts, graphs, and illustrations and imposed text over pictures. A red slash, like the one on the cover of Time magazine, was superimposed on stories, in an effort to give ABC's newscast a distinctive identity."

   • 2006, Ian David Aronson, DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish, Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 168:

     In the days before desktop video production software, such as Final Cut Pro and After Effects, making even a simple black and white title was a tough business. Creating broadcast-quality video titles required a specialized piece of expensive equipment called a Chyron generator and a highly skilled Chyron operator to run it. In fact, there was a time when Chyron operators made a good living because they were the only ones who knew how to make good, professional quality titles.

   • 2008 May, Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 321:

     The TV images that would shake American politics like none had since Watts in 1965 began innocuously enough: on NBC, above a chyron reading taped, it looked like a busy New York rush hour, though some are holding handkerchiefs to their faces. […] [T]he hemmed-in cops threw tear-gas canisters across the street at the apex of the marchers' U-turn […] grant park, chicago, illinois, the chyron now reads, and a woman's voice says, "The kids are still marching, it looks like a whole gathering of people with terrible colds"; […]

   • 2015, Charles Marsh, David W. Guth, Bonnie Poovey Short, “Broadcast/Podcast Writing”, in Strategic Writing: Multimedia Writing for Public Relations, Advertising, and More, 3rd edition, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 13:

     Chyron. Words shown on a video screen. Also known as a super. A slash (/) indicates a line break in a Chyron message in a script.

   • 2016, Michael Grothaus, Epiphany Jones, [London]: Orenda Books, →ISBN:

     On the TV, a guest sits on the George Drudge couch. Below her a chyron reads: Chandice, Admits she eats her Kleenex. A chyron reads: Rick, Says he doesn't trust Amy, that's why he watches her poop. On the bus, someone shouts, 'I do dat, too!' On the TV, a chyron reads: Selena, Admits she's obsessed with burping.

Etymology 2

See ciron

Pronunciation

• see ciron

Noun

chyron (plural chyrons)

1. Obsolete spelling of ciron (“the itch-mite (Sarcoptes scabiei), which infects the skin”).

Anagrams

• chrony