archaism

English

Alternative forms

archaicism
archæism (old-fashioned)
archaeism (rare or 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

IPA^(key): /ˈɑː(ɹ)keɪˌɪzəm/, /ˈɑː(ɹ)kiˌɪzəm/

Noun

archaism (countable and uncountable, plural archaisms)

The adoption or imitation of archaic words or style.
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

archaic word, language

Afrikaans: argaïsme (af)
Armenian: հնաբանություն (hy) (hnabanutʿyun)
Azerbaijani: arxaizm
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
Finnish: arkaismi (fi)
French: archaïsme (fr) m
Georgian: მოძველებული სიტყვა (moʒvelebuli siṭq̇va), არქაიზმი (arkaizmi)
German: Archaismus (de) m
Greek:
Ancient: ἀρχαϊσμός m (arkhaïsmós)
Hungarian: archaizmus (hu)
Irish: ársaíocht f
Japanese: 古語 (ja) (こご, kogo), アルカイズム (arukaizumu), アーケイズム (ākeizumu)
Ladino: arkaizmo m
Manx: shenn-chaaynt f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: arkaisme (no) m
Nynorsk: arkaisme m
Polish: archaizm (pl) m
Portuguese: arcaísmo (pt) m
Romanian: arhaism (ro) n, cuvânt învechit n
Russian: архаи́зм (ru) m (arxaízm)
Slovak: archaizmus (sk) m
Spanish: arcaísmo (es) m
Swedish: arkaism (sv)

Anagrams

Charisma, charisma, machairs