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What Does the "Cron" Mean In Unicron?

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:41 am
by tom brokaw
what does the name unicron mean.... if uni means one, then what does cron mean?....
.... therefore unicron has one cron. but what the heck is a cron?!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:45 am
by i_amtrunks
All I got from dictionary.com is this:
The Unix clock daemon that executes commands at specified dates and times according to instructions in a "crontab" file.


I'm guessing that -cron means nothing at all, and simply sounded "cool" and "evil" enough for the Movie writers to use after the Uni- for the big bad.

Could also mean something in a language other than English.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:51 am
by tom brokaw
i_amtrunks wrote:All I got from dictionary.com is this:
The Unix clock daemon that executes commands at specified dates and times according to instructions in a "crontab" file.


I'm guessing that -cron means nothing at all, and simply sounded "cool" and "evil" enough for the Movie writers to use after the Uni- for the big bad.

Could also mean something in a language other than English.

thats what im guessing, but it seems like it has a meaning. like for example a unicorn has obviously one horn.... i was searching my armada unicron for what he has one of. all he has is one jewel on his forehead.... but that doesnt seem very cron-ish :? .

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:54 am
by Scatterlung
That definition is for a computer operation. Chron, meaning time. It's a program that excecutes at a preset time.

Literally speaking, Unicron, I think, is One Time.

Which is.. kinda.. cool.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:52 am
by Me_Grimlock_King
Unicron: n. name. cool name thought up at a meeting at hasbro

That's my guess anyways.[/i]

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 6:13 am
by Insurgent
One Time sounds good to me. After all, he is supposed to be the big bad mojo in every universe at once (unless you go off toon).

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:52 am
by Thanatos Prime
"One Time" is the literal definition but honestly I bet he's called that because it sounds cool. Then again, the other Latin based names have been pretty much spot on...

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:33 am
by Justicity
Ok, so what does Megatron mean??? I'm not being sarcastic or argumentative here, I'm just interested. Mega is obvious, but what about tron? All I can think is elecTRONic, or that cheesy film set in VR... But that doesn't sound very evil-overlordish to me...

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:38 pm
by DISCHARGE
Man this has me thinking(not the Megatron but Cron).
The closest thing I found was a reference from the Bible I guess:
"And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire" (I Cron. 14:12).

It also has a close reference to Chronos. The God that ruled the Greeks before Zeus.
Unicron is considered a god so maybe they used the Cron part and just dropped the os at the end.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:48 pm
by tom brokaw
hmm, interesting

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:12 am
by The Chopnel
Justicity wrote:Ok, so what does Megatron mean??? I'm not being sarcastic or argumentative here, I'm just interested. Mega is obvious, but what about tron? All I can think is elecTRONic, or that cheesy film set in VR... But that doesn't sound very evil-overlordish to me...


I guess Megatron might be based on a "mega ton"? Isn't such unit used to measure the power of bombs, or something like that?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:32 am
by DISCHARGE
In searching for a meaning for tron I came across this
bit of info regarding the movie Tron. It frightens me what the
DHS is capable of. Perhaps it is a means of creating
a true Megatron.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/3/28/132751/380

Also Megatron is a type of battery.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:52 am
by VecPrime
Hey, at least he is'nt Unicran, God of Obsessive Fiber Intake....

Re: What Does the "Cron" Mean In Unicron?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:50 am
by captain craig
tom brokaw wrote:what does the name unicron mean.... if uni means one, then what does cron mean?....
.... therefore unicron has one cron. but what the heck is a cron?!

Your overthinking this. Its a cool name.*Period*

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 2:31 pm
by Thanatos Prime
DISCHARGE wrote:Man this has me thinking(not the Megatron but Cron).
The closest thing I found was a reference from the Bible I guess:
"And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire" (I Cron. 14:12).

It also has a close reference to Chronos. The God that ruled the Greeks before Zeus.
Unicron is considered a god so maybe they used the Cron part and just dropped the os at the end.


Cron is a reference to Chronos, the greek god of time and father of Zeus.

Megatron is Mega prefix meaning Million, like Megaton = 1,000,000 tons and tron is a suffix for any device used to manipulate subatomic particles, such as a vaccum tube or transistor

The Vector Sigma Database used to have character name definitions....

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:21 pm
by Night Striker
As most have pointed out Cron is a form of time of of the meaning Chronos, the father of time. Uni is a root word for One, single, or first.

Mega is as stated above, and tron is a part of the term eletronics, the tron is in connection to the idea of an eletrical output or devices I think.

What I'd like to know is where the word Primus came from. I know it means First but is it connected to Unicron some how? Same root, like how Prime and Elita's are?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:37 pm
by Thanatos Prime
Night Striker wrote:As most have pointed out Cron is a form of time of of the meaning Chronos, the father of time. Uni is a root word for One, single, or first.

Mega is as stated above, and tron is a part of the term eletronics, the tron is in connection to the idea of an eletrical output or devices I think.

What I'd like to know is where the word Primus came from. I know it means First but is it connected to Unicron some how? Same root, like how Prime and Elita's are?


Primus means first as he is one of the first beings in exsistence, also any figure who weild his matrix (the matrix was made by primus) is dubbed "prime" and leads the cybertronian forces (except for the decepticon rebels of course...)

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:44 pm
by Night Striker
*laughs* So what would a female prime be called? A prima?

Don't Optimus and Elita's names both mean the same?

OP =The best one
E1 =the best one

Also Ultra Magnus? Ultra meaning best too, but Magnus?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:24 pm
by Thanatos Prime
Night Striker wrote:*laughs* So what would a female prime be called? A prima?

Don't Optimus and Elita's names both mean the same?

OP =The best one
E1 =the best one

Also Ultra Magnus? Ultra meaning best too, but Magnus?


There is a transformer called Prima.

Magnus means large or big; Ultra does not mean best, only better or improved.

PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:13 am
by AxiomScion
tom brokaw wrote:what does the name unicron mean.... if uni means one, then what does cron mean?....
.... therefore unicron has one cron. but what the heck is a cron?!


The second poster was onto something,

Definitions.com for cron wrote:cron operating system
The Unix clock daemon that executes commands at specified dates and times according to instructions in a "crontab" file.
Unix manual page: cron(8).
(1997-04-10)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe


definitions.com for Daemon wrote:1. Classical Mythology. a. a god.
b. a subordinate deity, as the genius of a place or a person's attendant spirit.

2. a demon

The TFs did think of Unicron as a Myth and Unicron did seem to have a single mindedness and timely function to himself.

If you really want to probe there is always the looking into the etimology of "dae" since deity came from daeity much like demon from daemon.

Also a scifi OS.. makes me think AI so "one-mind" or :shock: the Borg sans collective. :oops: Beastmachines

DISCHARGE wrote:Man this has me thinking(not the Megatron but Cron).
The closest thing I found was a reference from the Bible I guess:
"And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire" (I Cron. 14:12).

It also has a close reference to Chronos. The God that ruled the Greeks before Zeus.
Unicron is considered a god so maybe they used the Cron part and just dropped the os at the end.

I think that's because it's (I chron.14:12) as in [url]Chronicles[/url] though cronus was ultimatly made subserviant to Zeus in myth; So etimology wise Cron may well be rooted from Cronos/Chronos/Cronus/Chronus

Ghaax wrote:I guess Megatron might be based on a "mega ton"? Isn't such unit used to measure the power of bombs, or something like that?
I think it's Mega-(1 million)and TRON er.. think a super mode for trek's Data. A seemingly infinite(Mega) and powerful robitic AI (tron) with electronics being electical opertated devices.

Night Striker wrote:What I'd like to know is where the word Primus came from. I know it means First but is it connected to Unicron some how? Same root, like how Prime and Elita's are?
While Pri/Prime means first and Uni means one (relatively the same as you pointed out yourself) I think "first together" is the simplest direct equivalent to the name Primus or maybe... "first of us" as Prime mostly means first, like ThanatosPrime pointed out.

I'm out of rant :cry:

PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:26 pm
by osiricon
Unicron was named by a guy with a speech problem. He could not say Unicorn the right way. So they mis understood him. True story my uncle Walter told me that.

PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:08 pm
by Tramp
Thanatos Prime wrote:
Night Striker wrote:*laughs* So what would a female prime be called? A prima?

Don't Optimus and Elita's names both mean the same?

OP =The best one
E1 =the best one

Also Ultra Magnus? Ultra meaning best too, but Magnus?


There is a transformer called Prima.

Magnus means large or big; Ultra does not mean best, only better or improved.
Yep, the first "prime" and first of the original 13 was Prima. He was the very first Transformer Primus created.

as for the word Magnus, here is what I found:
Magnus
Scand. name, popular with early kings, the first to use it was Magnus I, king of Norway and Denmark (d. 1047), who evidently took it in emulation of Charlemagne (L. Carolus Magnus) under the impression that magnus (L. "great") was a personal name.—Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:13 pm
by City Commander
Doesn't Magnus mean 'great' in latin? Or am I still forgetful :P

PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:24 pm
by Tramp
The Master Blaster wrote:Doesn't Magnus mean 'great' in latin? Or am I still forgetful :P
Yes, which is what the Online Etymology dictionary stated in parentheses. Here is the link to the english to latin translation of the word "great": http://www.freedict.com/onldict/onldict.php

PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:40 pm
by Black Bumblebee
Let's not forget other names such as...

Omega Supreme (the last of the best)

Fortress Maximus (Great fortress)

Metroplex (city)

Ratchet (reference to Nurse Ratchett from One Flew Over the Coocoo's Nest)

Ironhide (ref. to Ironside)

Kup (short for Pickup)

Grimlock (Grim meaning fierce/savage, lock referring pos. to a combat move, ie a headlock)

Abominus (from Abominable)

Cyclonus (from Cyclone)

etc., etc.