"anachronism" and the OED

[Jonathan Lighter]

I agree completely.

When I was in seventh grade, in the Mesolithic, we were told that the
striking clock in _Julius Caesar_ was an "anachronism."  It may even have
been in a printed footnote in our textbook.

I remember because, needless to say, I'd never heard the word "anachronism"
before. For a while I confused it  with "anarchism," which I believe I first
read on the back of a bubblegum card, in connection with the assassination
of Pres. McKinley by Leon Czolgosz in 1901.

Predictable whine: They don't make bubblegum cards like they used to.

JL

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "anachronism" and the OED
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sense 2 of "anachronism" is
>
> "2. Anything done or existing out of date; hence, anything which was
> proper to a former age, but is, or, if it existed, would be, out of
> harmony with the present; also called a practical anachronism. Also
> transf. of persons."
>
> The first clause is general, but the second ("hence ...") seems to
> restrict anachronisms to things *correct* of a former age but not for
> the present.  Should this sense not also include the notion of
> something *incorrect* of a former age, because it is not consistent
> with that former age?  (Sometimes -- but not always! -- occurring
> because the thing is true of the present age but has wrongly been
> applied to the past.)
>
> For example, a film of "Lady Audley's Secret" (1860s) has one
> character referring to another as a "golddigger".  That's a word in
> harmony (considerably, but politics aside) with the present, but not
> in use in the 1860s.  Is that not an anachronism?
>
> In fact, one quotation in the OED seems to have the sense I find not
> included:
> 1864    Round Table 18 June 4/3   She gives them phrases and words
> which..had their beginning long since that period, and are in fact
> linguistic anachronisms.
>
> Joel
>
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