anachronism

thumb|Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek [[Orpheus with a violin (invented in the 16th century) rather than a lyre. A 17th-century painting by Cesare Gennari.]]

An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type of anachronism is an object misplaced in time, but it may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a plant or animal, a custom, or anything else associated with a particular period that is placed outside its proper temporal domain.