anachronism

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- Proto-Hellenic *aná Ancient Greek ᾰ̓νᾰ́ (ănắ) Ancient Greek ᾰ̓νᾰ- (ănă-) Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos) Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ίζω (-ízō) Ancient Greek χρονῐ́ζω (khronĭ́zō) Ancient Greek ᾰ̓νᾰχρονῐ́ζομαι (ănăkhronĭ́zomai) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek ᾰ̓νᾰχρονῐσμός (ănăkhronĭsmós)der. New Latin anachronismusder. English anachronism From New Latin anachronismus, from Ancient Greek ἀναχρονισμός (anakhronismós), from ἀναχρονίζομαι (anakhronízomai, “referring to the wrong time”), from ἀνά (aná, “up against”) + χρονίζω (khronízō, “spending time”), from χρόνος (khrónos, “time”). Analyzable as ana- + chrono- + -ism.

1. A chronological mistake; the erroneous dating of an event, circumstance, or object.

   “Indeed, that Hall of the Upper Temple is a sight not uninteresting, and with the exception of some trifling improvements and anachronisms which have been introduced into the practice there, a man may sit down and fancy that he joins in a meal of the seventeenth century.”

   “[W]e beg the reader to understand that we only commit anachronisms when we choose and when by a daring violation of those natural laws some great ethical truth is to be advanced […]”

2. A person or thing which seems to belong to a different time or period of time.

   “You are too young—it is an anachronism for you to have such thoughts”

   “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.”

3. The aberrant projection of the present onto the past.