different between archaism vs archaic

English

Alternative forms

• archaicism
• archæism (old-fashioned)
• archaeism (rare or old-fashioned)

Etymology

17th Century, from New Latin, from Ancient Greek ????????? (arkhaïsmós, “an antiquated phrase or style”), from ????????? (arkhaízein, “to model one's style upon that of ancient writers”), from ??????? (arkhaîos, “old, ancient”), from ???? (arkh?, “beginning”), from ???? (árkh?, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?erg?- (“to begin, rule, command”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???(?)ke???z?m/, /???(?)ki??z?m/

Noun

archaism (countable and uncountable, plural archaisms)

1. The adoption or imitation of archaic words or style.
2. An archaic word, style, etc.

   In this text, the word "methinks" appears to be a deliberate archaism.

   • L. Douglas

     He had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent.

Related terms

• archaic

Translations

Further reading

• archaism in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• archaism in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• archaism at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Charisma, charisma, machairs

English

Alternative forms

• archæic (old-fashioned)
• archaeic (rare or old-fashioned)
• archaïc
• archaick (obsolete)

Etymology

From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ???????? (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ??????? (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ???? (arkh?, “beginning, origin”), from ???? (árkh?, “I am first”), from ???? (árkh?, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?erg?- (“to begin, rule, command”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??.?ke?.?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??.?ke?.?k/

Noun

archaic (plural archaics)

1. (archaeology, US, usually capitalized) A general term for the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American?paleolithic’, &c.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
   • 1958, Wiley, Gordon R., and Philip Phillips, Method and Theory in American Archaeology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, page #107:

     [...] Archaic Stage [...] the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into environmental conditions approximately those of the present.

2. (paleoanthropology) (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
   • 2009, The Human Lineage, page 432:

     [...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.

Adjective

archaic (comparative more archaic, superlative most archaic)

1. Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
2. (of words) No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity.
3. (archaeology) Belonging to the archaic period

Synonyms

• (old-fashioned): dated, obsolete, old fashioned; see also Thesaurus:obsolete

Derived terms

• archaically, archaism, archaicy

Related terms

Translations

References

• archaic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914) , “archaic”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume I (A–C), revised edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., OCLC 1078064371.
• The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press, 1998

Anagrams

• arachic