Anachronism

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈnæ.kɹə.nɪ.z(ə)m/

Definitions

1. Something that belongs to a different time period and seems out of place in its current setting
2. An element belonging to an earlier or later epoch that appears incongruously within a narrative or historical context of a different time
3. An object, idea, or custom that does not fit the time period in which it appears

Etymology: The Greek word "anachronismos" meant an error in dating: an event placed at the wrong point in time. It was built from "ana", here meaning something like "against" or "out of place", and "khronos", meaning "time", with the suffix "-ismos" marking the act or condition. The verb behind it, "anakhronizesthai", meant to refer something to the wrong time, so the sense was originally one of mistake rather than of a thing that is out of its era. The word passed into modern European languages through New Latin, the scholarly Latin used by early modern writers, and then into French as "anachronisme" and into English. Its meaning has since shifted from the technical idea of a chronological error to the everyday sense of something belonging to an earlier or later period than the one in which it appears.

Synonyms: misplacement, inconsistency, outdatedness

Antonyms: contemporary, modernity