Uchronia is currently an English word-in-formation, a neologism, that is sometimes used in its original meaning as a straightforward synonym for alternate history,[1][2][3][4] a genre of speculative fiction that reimagines historical events going in new, imaginary directions.
[5] In the Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, and Galician languages, the words uchronie, ucronia, and ucronía are native terms for alternate history from which derives the English loanword uchronia.
It was coined by Charles Renouvier for his 1876 novel Uchronie, whose full title translated into English is Uchronia (Utopia in History), an Apocryphal Sketch of the Development of European Civilization Not as It Was But as It Might Have Been.
[8] However, another developing definition of uchronia is a larger umbrella category of fiction that encompasses alternate history, parallel universes, and stories based in futuristic or non-temporal settings.
[12] Furthermore, the goal of uchronia is sometimes now focused away from the traditional purpose of fiction as mere entertainment instead towards more practical applications in social and political discourse.