anachronism

WOTD – 11 August 2006    

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin anachronismus, from Ancient Greek ἀναχρονισμός (anakhronismos), from ἀναχρονίζομαι (anakhronizomai, “referring to the wrong time”), from ἀνά (ana, “up against”) + χρονίζω (khronizo, “spending time”), which from χρόνος (khronos, “time”).

Pronunciation

• (GenAm, RP) enPR: ənăkʹrənĭzm, ənăkʹrənĭzəm; IPA: /əˈnækɹənɪzm/, /əˈnækɹənɪzəm/; X-SAMPA: /@"n{kr\@nIzm/, /@"n{kr\@nIz@m/

• Audio (US, Northern California)

  (file)

Noun

anachronism (plural anachronisms)

1. A chronological mistake; the erroneous dating of an event, circumstance, or object.
2. A person or thing which seems to belong to a different time or period of time.
   • 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 32:

     His movements, his clothes, everything about him, seemed slightly out of place in this assembly. He spoiled the pattern; like Alvin, he was an anachronism.

Synonyms

• throwback

Related terms

anachronistic anachronistically anachronous

anachronously parachronistic prochronistic

Translations

chronological mistake

• Bulgarian: анахронизъм (bg) (anahronízǎm) m 
• Catalan: anacronisme (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不合時宜 (cmn), 不合时宜 (cmn) (bùhéshíyí)

• Esperanto: anakronismo (eo)
• Finnish: ajoitusvirhe (fi)
• French: anachronisme (fr) m
• German: Anachronismus (de) m
• Hungarian: időrendi tévedés (hu), anakronizmus (hu), időzavar (hu), kortévesztés (hu)
• Irish: mí-aimsearthacht (ga) f, anacronachas (ga) m, iomrall aimsire (ga) m
• Japanese: 時代錯誤 (ja) (じだいさくご, jidai sakugo)
• Korean: 시대 착오 (ko) (sidae chago)

• Manx: mee-emshiraght (gv) f
• Polish: anachronizm (pl) m
• Portuguese: anacronismo (pt) m
• Russian: анахронизм (ru) (anaxronízm) m 
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: анакронизам (sh) m (Serbo-Croatian, Serbo-Croatian), анахронизам (sh) m (Serbo-Croatian)

  Roman: anakronizam (sh) m (Serbo-Croatian, Serbo-Croatian), anahronizam (sh) m (Serbo-Croatian)

• Spanish: anacronismo (es) m
• Swedish: anakronism (sv) c
• Turkish: anakronizm (tr), çağaşım (tr), zamandışılık (tr)
• Ukrainian: анахронізм (uk) (anaxronízm) m 

person or thing which seems to belong to a different time

• Bulgarian: анахронизъм (bg) (anahronízǎm) m 
• Catalan: anacronisme (ca) m
• Czech: anachronismus (cs) m
• Finnish: anakronismi (fi)
• German: Anachronismus (de) m

• Japanese: 時代錯誤 (ja) (じだいさくご, jidai sakugo)
• Russian: анахронизм (ru) (anaxronízm) m , пережиток (ru) (perežítok) m 
• Serbo-Croatian: anakronizam (sh) m
• Spanish: anacronismo (es) m
• Turkish: zaman aşımı (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Kurdish: anakronîzm (ku) f, derdemî (ku) f
• Romanian: anacronism (ro) n