anachronism

anachronism
anachronically /an'euh kron"ik lee/, adv.
/euh nak"reuh niz'euhm/, n.
1. something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, esp. 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. Cf. parachronism, prochronism.
[1640-50; < L anachronismus < Gk anachronismós a wrong time reference, equiv. to anachron(ízein) to make a wrong time reference (see ANA-, CHRON-, -IZE) + -ismos -ISM]

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      (from Greek ana, “back,” and chronos, “time”), neglect or falsification, intentional or not, of chronological relation. It is most frequently found in works of imagination that rest on a historical basis, in which appear details borrowed from a later age; e.g., a clock in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, an attendant to the Pharaoh shod in tennis shoes in Cecil B. deMille's The Ten Commandments. Anachronisms originate in disregard of the different modes of life and thought that characterize different periods or in ignorance of the facts of history.

      Anachronisms abound in the painting of Raphael and the plays of Shakespeare. Artists tended to represent characters in terms of their own nationality and time. The Virgin has been pictured both as an Italian peasant and as a Flemish housewife; Alexander the Great appeared on the French stage down to the time of Voltaire in the full costume of Louis XIV. Modern realism, the progress of archaeological research, and the scientific approach to history came to make an unconscious anachronism an offense. But anachronisms may be introduced deliberately for a burlesque, satiric, or other effect; by contrasting contemporary customs or morals with an alien age, the writer or artist reevaluates the past or present, or both. Thus Mark Twain wrote of a Connecticut Yankee visiting King Arthur's court, and the Belgian James Ensor painted Christ entering Brussels (1888).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • anachronism — anachronism, solecism are occasionally used interchangeably to mean something that does not properly belong to the setting or background in which it is placed and that is incongruous with it. More specifically, anachronism implies a mistake in… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Anachronism — An*ach ro*nism, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to refer to a wrong time, to confound times; ? + ? time: cf. F. anachronisme.] A misplacing or error in the order of time; an error in chronology by which events are misplaced in regard to each other, esp. one by… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • anachronism — (n.) 1640s, an error in computing time or finding dates, from L. anachronismus, from Gk. anakhronismos, from anakhronizein refer to wrong time, from ana against (see ANA (Cf. ana )) + khronos time, of uncertain origin. Meaning something out of… …   Etymology dictionary

  • anachronism — [n] error in time placement chronological error, metachronism, misdate, misplacement, postdate, prolepsis, solecism; concept 818 …   New thesaurus

  • anachronism — ► NOUN 1) a thing belonging to a period other than the one in which it exists. 2) the placing of something in the wrong historical period. DERIVATIVES anachronistic adjective anachronistically adverb. ORIGIN from Greek ana backwards + khronos… …   English terms dictionary

  • anachronism — [ə nak′rə niz΄əm] n. [MGr anachronismos < anachronizein, to refer to a wrong time < Gr ana , against + chronos, time] 1. the representation of something as existing or occurring at other than its proper time, esp. earlier 2. anything that… …   English World dictionary

  • Anachronism — An anachronism (from the Greek ana ανά , against, anti , and chronos χρόνος , time ) is anything that is temporally incongruous in the time period it has been placed in mdash;that is, it appears in a temporal context in which it seems… …   Wikipedia

  • Anachronism — (Roget s Thesaurus) >False estimate of time. < N PARAG:Anachronism >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 anachronism anachronism metachronism parachronism prochronism Sgm: N 1 prolepsis prolepsis misdate Sgm: N 1 anticipation anticipation antichronism …   English dictionary for students

  • anachronism — [[t]ənæ̱krənɪzəm[/t]] anachronisms 1) N COUNT You say that something is an anachronism when you think that it is out of date or old fashioned. In this day and age the dowry with all its attendant cruelties is an anachronism. 2) N COUNT An… …   English dictionary

  • anachronism — UK [əˈnækrəˌnɪz(ə)m] / US [əˈnækrəˌnɪzəm] noun [countable] Word forms anachronism : singular anachronism plural anachronisms something that is no longer suitable for or relevant to modern times She regards the marriage ceremony as a quaint… …   English dictionary

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