Anachronical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Out of proper time order or belonging to a different historical period than the one in which it appears
2. Belonging to a time period that is inconsistent with the context in which it is found or characterized by the incongruence of temporal elements with current chronology
3. Characterized by elements that are not temporally aligned with their supposed era or appearing in a context that confusingly mismatches their historical setting

Etymology: The word "anachronistic" is built from Greek "ana" (back, against, up) and "chronos" (time), so its core sense is literally "against time" or "out of its proper time." The Greek noun "anachronismos" meant an error in chronology, and that noun passed through New Latin "anachronismus" and French "anachronisme" before English borrowed the noun "anachronism." The adjective came later, formed in English by adding the suffix "-istic" to that noun. This form carries that suffix from Greek through Latin and French, where the "-istes" ending of agent nouns and the "-ikos" adjective ending were fused into one suffix that English applies to many words, such as "realistic" and "idealistic." The word "anachronical" is a variant of this adjective that uses the older "-ical" ending instead, which is the same ending found in "historical" and "chronological."

Synonyms: outdated, obsolete, anachronistic

Antonyms: timely, contemporary, modern