anachronism

What it means

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

   [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 […]

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 53, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   1 more example

   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.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

2. countableA 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

   1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXII, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 400

   5 more examples

   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.

   1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 32

   There exist in Europe a number of independent or semi-independent countries which are complete anachronisms, they are mini-countries which have little business existing in this hurly-burly century, but somehow they survive.

   1971, Ken Welsh, Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe, revised and updated edition, London: Pan, published 1975, page 142

   We're also witnessing the passing of something even more profound - a culture of working-class masculinity that has become an anachronism in the modern world.

   2009 May 20, Margaret Wente, “We are witnessing the passing of working-class masculinity”, in The Globe and Mail, archived from the original on 27 May 2009

   It has been a colossal error by Davos Man left-wingers to think of nation-states as embarrassing anachronisms hostile to democracy.

   2017 March 28, Alan Johnson, “Why Brexit Is Best for Britain: The Left-Wing Case”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020

   The old portions are perfectly preserved[…]and yet right there, in their literal backyard, rise the newer portions, the Star Wars district and the Avatar experience, offering the best of current theme park technologies to match the lovingly maintained anachronisms.

   2023 March 3, Ross Douthat, “What a Visit to Disney World Reveals About America”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023

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

In a sentence

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.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂en-
2. Proto-Hellenic*aná
3. Ancient Greekᾰ̓νᾰ́ (ănắ)
4. Ancient Greekᾰ̓νᾰ- (ănă-)
5. Ancient Greekχρόνος (khrónos)
6. Ancient Greekχρονῐ́ζω (khronĭ́zō)
7. Ancient Greekᾰ̓νᾰχρονῐ́ζομαι (ănăkhronĭ́zomai)
8. Ancient Greekἀναχρονισμός (anakhronismós)
9. New Latinanachronismus
10. Englishanachronism

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.