archaism

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

17th century, from New Latin archaismus, from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊσμός (arkhaïsmós, “an antiquated phrase or style”), from ἀρχαίζω (arkhaízō, “to model one's style upon that of ancient writers”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “old, ancient”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɑː.keɪ.ɪz.əm/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑɹ.kiˌɪz.əm/, /ˈɑɹ.keɪˌɪz.əm/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈaː.kæɪ.ɪz.əm/

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.

   • 1902, Robert Langton Douglas, A History of Siena:

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

Synonyms

• gadzookery

Hyponyms

• (poor and high-flown use in writing) tushery

Derived terms

• archaist
• hyperarchaism
• pseudoarchaism

 

Related terms

• archaic

Translations

archaic word, language

• Afrikaans: argaïsme (af)
• Albanian: arkaizëm m
• Armenian: հնաբանություն (hy) (hnabanutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: arxaizm
• Belarusian: архаі́зм m (arxaízm)
• Bulgarian: архаи́зъм (bg) m (arhaízǎm)
• Catalan: arcaisme (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 古詞／古词 (zh) (gǔcí), 古語／古语 (zh) (gǔyǔ)

• Czech: archaismus (cs) m
• Danish: arkaisme
• Dutch: archaïsme (nl) n
• Esperanto: arĥaismo, arkaismo
• Estonian: arhaism
• Finnish: arkaismi (fi)
• French: archaïsme (fr) m
• Georgian: მოძველებული სიტყვა (moʒvelebuli siṭq̇va), არქაიზმი (arkaizmi)
• German: Archaismus (de) m
• Greek: αρχαιοπρέπεια (el) f (archaioprépeia)

  Ancient: ἀρχαϊσμός m (arkhaïsmós)

• Hungarian: archaizmus (hu)
• Indonesian: arkaisme (id)
• Irish: ársaíocht f
• Italian: arcaismo (it) m
• Japanese: 古語 (ja) (こご, kogo), アルカイズム (arukaizumu), アーケイズム (ākeizumu)
• Kazakh: архаизм (arxaizm)
• Korean: 의고체(擬古體) (uigoche), 고문체(古文體) (gomunche), 고어(古語) (ko) (go'eo)
• Kyrgyz: архаизм (ky) (arhaizm)
• Ladino: arkaizmo m
• Latvian: arhaisms m
• Lithuanian: archaizmas m
• Macedonian: архаи́зам m (arhaízam)
• Manx: shenn-chaaynt f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: arkaisme (no) m

  Nynorsk: arkaisme m

• Persian: باستان‌گرایی (bâstân-garâyi)
• Polish: archaizm (pl) m
• Portuguese: arcaísmo (pt) m
• Romanian: arhaism (ro) n, cuvânt învechit n
• Russian: архаи́зм (ru) m (arxaízm)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: архаѝзам m

  Roman: arhaìzam (sh) m

• Slovak: archaizmus (sk) m
• Slovene: arhaizem m
• Spanish: arcaísmo (es) m
• Swedish: arkaism (sv)
• Tajik: бостонгароӣ (bostongaroi), архаизм (arxayizm)
• Turkish: arkaizm (tr)
• Ukrainian: архаї́зм (uk) m (arxajízm)
• Uzbek: arxaizm (uz)
• Vietnamese: từ cổ, cổ ngữ (vi)

Further reading

• “archaism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “archaism”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “archaism”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Charisma, charisma, machairs