# types of anachronisms

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 24, 2001, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097 "2001-04-24T04:25:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097/1 "2001-04-24T04:25:26Z")

</div>

Once upon a time, I came across two words. Both referred to specific types of anachronisms. One meant things that were ahead of their time, and the other meant things that were archaic or obsolete. I believe they both ended with “chronism”.

Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097/2 "2001-04-24T06:59:47Z")

</div>

It sounds like you might be thinking of [metachronism](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=metachronism) (“An error committed in chronology by placing an event after its real time”) and [prochronism](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=prochronism) (“The dating of an event before the time it happened; an antedating; – opposed to metachronism”). There’s also [parachronism](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=parachronism) (“An error in chronology, by which the date of an event is set later than the time of its occurrence”), which seems pretty much synonymous with metachronism.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097/3 "2001-04-24T11:23:30Z")

</div>

Indeed. Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097/4 "2001-04-24T13:17:45Z")

</div>

Excellent answer, **MEBuckner**. I couldn’t (and, given the way things have been going lately almost certainly wouldn’t) have said it any better myself.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/types-of-anachronisms/63097/5 "2001-04-24T18:00:10Z")

</div>

Well, that’s mostly just the way the [1913 _Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary_](http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/webster.form.html) said it. The “floating search” option is very nice.