Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Relating to, being, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period, especially one that develops into a classical stage of civilization.
- adjective No longer current or applicable; antiquated: synonym: old.
- adjective Relating to, being, or characteristic of words and language that were once in regular use but are now relatively rare and suggestive of an earlier style or period.
- adjective Relating to or being an early or premodern evolutionary form of an organism or group of organisms.
- adjective Relating to or being an early form of Homo sapiens or a closely related species, such as Neanderthal, that is anatomically distinct from modern humans.
- adjective Relating to a Native American culture prevalent throughout much of North America from about 8000 BC to about 1000 BC, characterized especially by the development of Mesolithic tools and by the increased reliance on smaller game animals as the large Pleistocene mammals became extinct.
- noun A member of an archaic population of Homo.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Marked by the characteristics of an earlier period; characterized by archaism; primitive; old-fashioned; antiquated: as, an archaic word or phrase.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or characterized by antiquity or archaism; antiquated; obsolescent.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaeology, US, usually capitalized A general term for the
prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, &c.) of human presence in theWestern Hemisphere , and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.). - noun (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
- adjective Of or characterized by
antiquity ;old-fashioned ,quaint ,antiquated . - adjective of words No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
- adjective so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The forms of thou are termed archaic by Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged: "In this dictionary, the label archaic is affixed to words and senses relatively common in earlier times but infrequently used in present-day English."
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LAVANDERA: Stay-at-home mother Melissa Pierce is leading the charge to end what she calls archaic alcohol laws.
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With widespread illegal gambling activity, a group of Bahamians want what they call the archaic, undemocratic gaming laws in the country to be changed to afford them the right to gamble in their own country.
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It doesn't stop you from using solid rocket motors or engines designed in archaic units.
NASA Finds The Metric System Too Hard To Implement for Constellation - NASA Watch 2009
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Those who oppose zoning will call it archaic, divisive, and unfair.
Howard F. Jeter: Nigeria on the Brink: A Rejoinder Howard F. Jeter 2010
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He looks up to see a man in archaic clothing stumbling down a hill, clearly being chased by vague, dark figures.
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He looks up to see a man in archaic clothing stumbling down a hill, clearly being chased by vague, dark figures.
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One thing I was reminded of this weekend is that historic quotes in archaic language that Quakers use ... sometimes overuse .. were once contemporary language.
In DTW da_lj 2009
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He looks up to see a man in archaic clothing stumbling down a hill, clearly being chased by vague, dark figures.
New Prisoner Series on A&E « Third Point of Singularity 2009
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Those who oppose zoning will call it archaic, divisive, and unfair.
Howard F. Jeter: Nigeria on the Brink: A Rejoinder Howard F. Jeter 2010
chained_bear commented on the word archaic
VanishedOne's question on slate reminded me. I was wondering, yesterday, what the real difference is between obsolete and archaic, in terms of the tags on this site. I've been using archaic (mostly) to tag stuff, but there are many, many more terms tagged obsolete. (I noticed that the obsolete tag appears to have gotten started on obsolete (go figure).)
To me, obsolete means that you won't (probably) ever hear it again, whereas archaic words pop up all the time--in history, law, and other fields. (Well, maybe just in history and law.)
I guess my question is, does it matter? Is there a real difference between these two designations, or only in my small rattly brain?
October 22, 2008
reesetee commented on the word archaic
I use the obsolete tag often (don't know whether I was the first) because I have a list of obsolete words. From my rare book cataloging background, I tend to use obsolete in a different way than archaic, similar to the way the OED uses them. As I understand it, "obsolete" describes a word that is no longer in use at all, whereas "archaic" refers to a specific definition or meaning of a word that is no longer in use.
October 22, 2008