Definition

1. Noun:
   • A person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age: An individual whose ideas, behavior, or appearance are considered outdated or not fitting for the present period.
   • An artifact that belongs to another time: An object, custom, or institution that is chronologically out of place in its current setting.
   • Something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred: An error in chronology, especially the placing of an event, person, or thing in the wrong historical period.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • In the modern digital office, his insistence on using a typewriter made him seem like an anachronism.
  • The film was criticized for the anachronism of a wristwatch on a Roman soldier.
  • The historian pointed out the anachronism of depicting medieval knights with 18th-century firearms.

Advanced Usage

• As a concept in art and literature: Anachronism is often used deliberately for stylistic, humorous, or thematic effect.
  • The painter's use of anachronism, placing contemporary figures in Renaissance scenes, creates a thought-provoking dialogue between eras.
• In a figurative sense: Can describe anything that feels conspicuously out of step with its surroundings.
  • The quaint, family-owned bookstore felt like a charming anachronism on the street of corporate chains.

Variants and Related Words

• Anachronistic (adj): Pertaining to or involving an anachronism; outdated.
  • The anachronistic policy failed to address modern economic realities.
• Anachronistically (adv): In an anachronistic manner.
  • The character was anachronistically dressed in Victorian attire.

Synonyms

• Chronological error: A mistake in time ordering.
• Outdated person/thing: Something or someone no longer current.
• Incongruity: The state of being out of place.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• "A living anachronism": A phrase used to describe a person who embodies the customs or mindset of a past era.
  • With his formal manners and love for handwritten letters, my grandfather was a living anachronism.
• "An anachronism in the modern world": A common collocation emphasizing something's outdated nature in contemporary society.
  • The old-fashioned telephone booth is an anachronism in the modern world of smartphones.

Noun

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