"anachronism" and the OED

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/12/2011 04:38 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>I am confused.
>
>Isn't the fact that this is sense 2 of anachronism demonstrate that it
>doesn't restrict use of the term to practical anachronism?
>
>What is sense 1? I don't have the OED available to me at the moment.

Sense 1 is about something else:

1. An error in computing time, or fixing dates; the erroneous
reference of an event, circumstance, or custom to a wrong date. Said
etymologically (like prochronism) of a date which is too early, but
also used of too late a date, which has been distinguished as parachronism.

What bothers me is the "hence" in sense 2.  A "therefore" makes it
seem that what follows -- "anything which was proper to a *former*
age" -- is an explanation of "Anything done or existing out of date",
not one of several possible examples of that.

Joel


>DanG
>
>
>On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 4:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter
><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "anachronism" and the OED
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > 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 Anything done or existing out of date; hence, anything which was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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> > >
> >
> >
> >
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