anachronism

anach·ro·nism

noun \ə-ˈna-krə-ˌni-zəm\

Definition of ANACHRONISM

1

: an error in chronology; especially : a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other

2

: a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present

3

: the state or condition of being chronologically out of place

— anach·ro·nis·tic \ə-ˌna-krə-ˈnis-tik\ also ana·chron·ic \ˌa-nə-ˈkrä-nik\ adjective

— anach·ro·nis·ti·cal·ly \ə-ˌna-krə-ˈnis-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

— anach·ro·nous \ə-ˈna-krə-nəs\ adjective

— anach·ro·nous·ly adverb

Examples of ANACHRONISM

1. The novel is full of anachronisms.
2. He's an old-fashioned politician who is seen by many of his colleagues as an anachronism.
3. In our modern world of pre-made, rush-rush, tightly scheduled lives, Amanda Blake Soule is an anachronism. At their home in coastal Maine, her family of six makes most of what they use—everything from bread and crafts to clothes and toys. —Jean Van't Hul, Mothering, March/April 2009
4. The spy thriller is a genre that arguably should have died fifteen years ago, and its continued popularity seems an anachronism at first glance. —Rand Richards Cooper, Commonweal, 14 Sept. 2007
5. With few exceptions, work opportunities for older people diminished after the Civil War as the United States metamorphosed into an urban-industrial order, inaugurating a second phase in the history of retirement. The village blacksmith became an anachronism as the craftsman retreated before the new mass-production industries. —W. Andrew Achenbaum, Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2006
6. But Shakespeare may have drifted into anachronism here. According to Rogers, food in France at the time of Agincourt was probably just as meaty and unsophisticated as it was in England. —Jonathan Ree, Prospect, August, 2003
7. It is true that in the closing years of the century William Jennings Bryan could still rise to national political leadership through his superb oratorical skills, but it is equally true that he lived to see himself become an anachronism, the bearer of a style redolent of an earlier culture. —Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past, 1993

Origin of ANACHRONISM

probably from Middle Greek anachronismos, from anachronizesthai to be an anachronism, from Late Greek anachronizein to be late, from Greek ana- + chronos time

First Known Use: 1617

Rhymes with ANACHRONISM

absenteeism, absolutism, abstractionism, adventurism, aestheticism, Afrocentrism, agnosticism, alcoholism, amateurism, anabaptism, Anglicanism, animalism, antagonism, Arianism, astigmatism, athleticism, automatism, behaviorism, Big Brotherism, bilingualism, Bonapartism, cannibalism, capitalism, Cartesianism, Catholicism, charlatanism, collectivism, commercialism, communalism, Confucianism, conservatism, constructivism, consumerism, corporatism, creationism, determinism, do-nothingism, eclecticism, ecotourism, ecumenism, egocentrism, empiricism, epicurism, eroticism, essentialism, ethnocentrism, evangelism, exoticism, expansionism, expressionism, Fabianism, factionalism, fanaticism, favoritism, federalism, Fenianism, feuilletonism, Fourierism, fraternalism, Freudianism, funambulism, functionalism, hermeticism, Hispanicism, historicism, hooliganism, illiberalism, illusionism, impressionism, infantilism, inflationism, initialism, insularism, irredentism, Jacobinism, Keynesianism, know-nothingism, lesbianism, liberalism, libertinism, literalism, Lutheranism, Lysenkoism, magic realism, malapropism, mercantilism, messianism, metabolism, metamorphism, militarism, minimalism, monasticism, monotheism, mutualism, naturalism, Naziritism, negativism, neologism, neo-Nazism, neorealism, nominalism, nonconformism, objectivism, obscurantism, obstructionism, opportunism, pacificism, parallelism, pastoralism, paternalism, patriotism, Peeping Tomism, perfectionism, photo-realism, plebeianism, polytheism, positivism, postmodernism, primitivism, progressivism, protectionism, Protestantism, provincialism, puritanism, radicalism, rationalism, recidivism, reductionism, regionalism, relativism, revisionism, revivalism, ritualism, romanticism, salvationism, sansculottism, scholasticism, sectionalism, secularism, separatism, serialism, Slavophilism, somnambulism, Stakhanovism, structuralism, subjectivism, teetotalism, theocentrism, triumphalism, Uncle Tomism, ventriloquism, vigilantism, workaholism