anachronism

American  

[uh-nak-ruh-niz-uhm] / əˈnæk rəˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time.

   The sword is an anachronism in modern warfare.

2. an error in chronology in which a person, object, event, etc., is assigned a date or period other than the correct one.

   To assign Michelangelo to the 14th century is an anachronism.

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anachronism British  

/ əˈnækrəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. the representation of an event, person, or thing in a historical context in which it could not have occurred or existed

2. a person or thing that belongs or seems to belong to another time

   she regards the Church as an anachronism

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Other Word Forms

• anachronically adverb
• anachronistic adjective
• anachronistically adverb

Etymology

Origin of anachronism

1640–50; < Latin anachronismus < Greek anachronismós a wrong time reference, equivalent to anachron ( ízein ) to make a wrong time reference ( ana-, chron-, -ize ) + -ismos -ism

Example Sentences

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times has dismissed it as “a silly anachronism.”

From Salon

The Court held that the formula was an anachronism from the Jim Crow era and didn’t account for racial progress.

From The Wall Street Journal

Their opposition to transportation projects and other infrastructure, though supposedly grounded in Jeffersonian principle, was a roundabout way of retarding industrial development and ensuring that slavery did not become an economic anachronism.

From Salon

These anachronisms and inequities are further exacerbated by the unaccountable malefactors of the wealthiest classes, who are able to thwart any fundamental reforms that might weaken the popular urge for a radical or totalitarian solution.

From Salon

Israel is in some ways an anachronism in that 20th-century trajectory.

From Salon