anachronism

C2 Topic:Culture & History
US /əˈnækrəˌnɪzəm/ UK /əˈnæ.kɹə.nɪ.z(ə)m/
noun Freq #68386

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    a person, object, or detail placed in the wrong historical period

    A smartphone in the medieval film would be an anachronism.

  2. 2
    noun

    something that seems old-fashioned or out of date

    The paper ticket felt like an anachronism.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · a person, object, or detail... historical errormisdating
2 noun · something that seems... throwbackrelic
Opposites
contemporaneity
Word family
Derived forms anachronizeanacronym
Related forms anachronisticanachronisticallyanachronousanachronouslyanachronymparachronisticprochronisticretronym

Etymology

From New Latin anachronismus, from Ancient Greek ἀναχρονισμός (anakhronismós), from ἀναχρονίζομαι (anakhronízomai, “referring to the wrong time”), from ἀνά (aná, “up against”) + χρονίζω (khronízō, “spending time”), from χρόνος (khrónos, “time”). Analyzable as ana- + chrono- + -ism.

Topics

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