archaeolatry

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noun

Worship of an antiquity; excessive veneration of antiquity.

Scrabble 20

Meanings

nounarchaeolatry (uncountable)

alternative archæolatry · alternative archeolatry

  1. uncountableWorship of an antiquity; excessive veneration of antiquity.

    That is, it continues a tradition of archaeolatry and the Hellenocentricism that began with Winckelmann and trived with the contribution of Greek scholars.

    2008, Argyro Loukaki, Living Ruins, Value Conflicts, →ISBN, page 151
    2 more examples

    Here Axioti opposes to ethnocentric archaeolatry one's "painful" relation to the present and past, which is based on the search for authentic, not superficial, signals of this continuity .

    1992, Maria Kakavoulia, Interior Monologue and Its Discursive Formation in Melpo Axioti's Dyskoles Nychtes

    Later on, during the second half of the nineteenth century, it was the language question that occupied the centre of the political scene. This time, unmitigated archaeolatry ran hand in hand with religious traditionalism.

    2002, Mikael af Malmborg, Bo Stråth, The Meaning of Europe, page 39

Origin

From archae- + -o- + -latry, from Ancient Greek: ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “ancient”) in combination with λατρεία (latreía, “service", "worship”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

archaeolatry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/archaeolatry

MLA

“archaeolatry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/archaeolatry. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “archaeolatry,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/archaeolatry.

Source: archaeolatry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.