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anachronism

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order.
  • noun One that is out of its proper or chronological order, especially a person or practice that belongs to an earlier time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An error in respect to dates; any error which implies the misplacing of persons or events in time; hence, anything foreign to or out of keeping with a specified time.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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 which an event is placed too early; falsification of chronological relation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A chronological mistake; the erroneous dating of an event, circumstance, or object.
  • noun A person or thing which seems to belong to a different time or period of time.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an artifact that belongs to another time
  • noun something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred
  • noun a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French anachronisme, from New Latin anachronismus, from Late Greek anakhronismos, from anakhronizesthai, to be an anachronism : Greek ana-, ana- + Greek khronizein, to take time (from khronos, time).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

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Examples

Comments

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  • thinkcharlene commented on the word anachronism


    Frasier - Season 8, Episode 5 - "Taking Liberties"

    November 10, 2007

  • chained_bear commented on the word anachronism

    This example was particularly interesting (to me anyway): "Juxtaposition of items or situations that belong to different and separate time periods, such as Stegosaurus (of the Jurassic Period) with Tyrannosaurus (of the Cretaceous Period)."

    August 28, 2008

  • ekbergmann commented on the word anachronism

    I am not so serious

    This passion is a plagiarism

    I might join your century

    But only on a rare occasion

    I was taken out

    Before the labor pains set in and now

    Behold the world's worst accident

    I am the girl anachronism

    -"Girl Anachronism", The Dresden Dolls

    From Wikipedia: The lyrics, alternately angry, apologetic, and full of complaint, deal with Amanda Palmer, the band's lead singer, as a "problem child", a trait which she blames on the fact that she was born a few days premature, by Caesarean section. As the song grows, the lyrics split into various subplots, all of which are related to feeling out of place or out of time.

    March 31, 2010