Kairos is a Greek word about timing that speechwriters should know

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently ran across an article by David Murray at Pro Rhetoric on May 25, 2023 titled “The Lehrman Landing” – and Other Jargon Speechwriters Should Use Constantly. One term is Kairos:

 

“Kairos: Often forgotten as an element as important as logos, pathos and ethos, Kairos refers to the timeliness of an argument, or more broadly to the ‘moment’ in which any communication occurs. The Gettysburg Address would not have gone over big at a supermarket opening in 1975.”

 

There is another article by Jennifer Calonia at Grammarly on February 1, 2024 titled What is Kairos: History, Definition, and Examples. And there is a web page by Gideon O. Burton at

Silva Rhetoricae on Kairos. Also John Zimmer at Manner of Speaking on July 27, 2022 has an article titled Kairos: The foundation of rhetoric that explains:

 

“The ancient Greeks had two words for ‘time’. The first was ‘chronos’ (χρόνος), which referred to chronological time. Words like ‘chronological’ and ‘chronology’ come from chronos. The second was ‘kairos’ (καιρός), which means the right moment or opportunity. It is this second meaning which is of supreme importance when it comes to public speaking.”

 

The clock was adapted from an image at OpenClipArt.