# Define "Naronic"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/define-naronic/840893>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 27, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/define-naronic/840893 "2019-09-27T04:14:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/define-naronic/840893/1 "2019-09-27T04:14:32Z")

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The SS _Naronic_ went missing with all hands in 1893. She was a White Star ship. That line tended to name ships with the adjectival form of words related to obscure and ancient civilizations. (But then again, they also had the _Traffic_ and _Ceramic,_ so I suppose they also liked names ending in “ic.”)

So what in the heck might have been the root for the odd name Naronic?

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**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/define-naronic/840893/2 "2019-09-27T04:36:51Z")

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My cursory interwebz searchings yield this Google Books result suggesting “Naros” as the root: _[The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor](https://books.google.com/books?id=9B1k19eqlBcC&pg=PA181&lpg=PA181&dq=naronic+period&source=bl&ots=8kKi-FrHde&sig=ACfU3U1PCWoCpqun15VkDyZBPTNjK1twkQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMw838lfDkAhVnk-AKHV_BASMQ6AEwC3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=naronic%20period&f=false)_

Seems to be some sort of purported Theosophist Numerological/Astrological woo, used as the name of a 600-solar-year cycle. The “Naronic Cycle,” being the “Cycle of Naros.” Hunh.

Here’s some more of it: [http://www.vermontsophia.com/NAROS.htm](http://www.vermontsophia.com/NAROS.htm)

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/define-naronic/840893/3 "2019-09-27T04:54:43Z")

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Thank you. You seem to have gotten it in one shot.  
(Now of course, I would wonder how some ship-namer in 1890 could have found such a word and gotten it past the appropriate committee.)  
Or perhaps the root was the Russian “Narod,” defined as “historical  
In Russia and (formerly) the Soviet Union: the people, the nation; (specifically in Russian and Soviet political ideology) the common people viewed as the bearers of national culture.” But the first known use of that in (English) print seems to have been in 1930.

Somebody had a great job, naming ships.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/define-naronic/840893/4 "2019-09-27T06:26:58Z")

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> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#):
>
> Now of course, I would wonder how some ship-namer in 1890 could have found such a word and gotten it past the appropriate committee.

Theosophy was [all the rage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy_(Blavatskian)#Influence_on_the_arts_and_culture) at the time. All that weird “secret cycle” stuff wasn’t confined to just a few knowledgeable people, it was quite popular.