# What word describes giving someone an epithet that predates their time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2018, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967 "2018-11-23T05:19:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/21 "2018-11-23T23:05:39Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > You misunderstand. Calling Moore a “Marxist” is an anachronism. It is the word that is so described. Nobody is claiming that Moore was an anachronism. That is not the way the word is typically used. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/22 "2018-11-23T23:07:21Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > You misunderstand. Calling Moore a “Marxist” is an anachronism. It is the word that is so described. Nobody is claiming that Moore was an anachronism. Right. The OP isn’t asking for a term to describe Moore. The OP is asking how to describe the use of this particular term–whether it be correct or not. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/23 "2018-11-24T01:54:03Z")
Yeah, any temporal impossibility is an anachronism, by definition. It isn’t just a pejorative term. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/24 "2018-11-25T16:13:24Z")
There are two separate questions being addressed. The OP’s question is “what do you call the use of a term to apply to someone who predates that term?” Anachronism or prolepsis seem appropriate. The second question that is what many are answering is “What term can be applied to someone that predates the era that the term arises?” Sticking “proto-” onto the front is the popular answer. > [@Colibri](#): > > Certainly not. From Merriam-Webster: > > While technically More might be seen as chronologically out of place, that is not the sense in which “anachronism” is usually used. One might consider a modern proponent of the divine right of kings an anachronism, but not for someone who was an early example of a modern phenomenon. (This said, if such an example appeared in a work of fiction it would be an anachronism in the sense of an error.) > > I agree that proto-Marxist might be a good term for such a case. > [@Colibri](#): > > That is not the way the word is typically used. If the concept of a housewife as an archetype can be an anachronism, then I don’t see how the concept of a Marxist pre-Marx would not also be an anachronism. It’s an anachronistic use of the term Marxist. The person is committing prolepsis. Is that an error, or just a description of the act? Sort of like an oxymoron - something that seems to contradict itself. In this case, something that seems to predate itself, e.g. “precolonial United States”. I do agree one should explain the error. “It would be difficult for Thomas More to be a follower of Carl Marx, given he lived a couple hundred years before Marx.” Of course, language isn’t linear. The concept of communism as described by Marx is called Marxism, but the concept might have predated Marx, or at least precursors. He’s just recognized for formalizing it. Would calling More’s Utopia as “communist” be out of place\*, or would that also be an out-of-time usage? * * * - Leaving aside the question of if it is accurate. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/25 "2018-11-25T16:38:23Z")
Another form of words would be “A anticipated B [with the idea(s) XYZ” ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/26 "2018-11-25T17:12:12Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > There are two separate questions being addressed. The OP’s question is “what do you call the use of a term to apply to someone who predates that term?” Anachronism or prolepsis seem appropriate. > > The second question that is what many are answering is “What term can be applied to someone that predates the era that the term arises?” Sticking “proto-” onto the front is the popular answer. > > If the concept of a housewife as an archetype can be an anachronism, then I don’t see how the concept of a Marxist pre-Marx would not also be an anachronism. It’s an anachronistic use of the term Marxist. > > The person is committing prolepsis. Is that an error, or just a description of the act? Sort of like an oxymoron - something that seems to contradict itself. In this case, something that seems to predate itself, e.g. “precolonial United States”. > > I do agree one should explain the error. “It would be difficult for Thomas More to be a follower of Carl Marx, given he lived a couple hundred years before Marx.” > > Of course, language isn’t linear. The concept of communism as described by Marx is called Marxism, but the concept might have predated Marx, or at least precursors. He’s just recognized for formalizing it. Would calling More’s Utopia as “communist” be out of place\*, or would that also be an out-of-time usage? > > * * * > > - Leaving aside the question of if it is accurate. It would be a coinage of a new word. He would have had to have knowledge of the future to use it the way we do. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/27 "2018-11-25T19:02:01Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > There are two separate questions being addressed. The OP’s question is “what do you call the use of a term to apply to someone who predates that term?” Anachronism or prolepsis seem appropriate. > > The second question that is what many are answering is “What term can be applied to someone that predates the era that the term arises?” Sticking “proto-” onto the front is the popular answer. True. To be clear, though, the OP posed only the first question. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967/28 "2018-11-27T16:59:28Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > It would be a coinage of a new word. He would have had to have knowledge of the future to use it the way we do. I’m not suggesting More would have used the word, but that we apply the word in a backwards way to say the ideas are such and such, precursors to the formalism of Marx. > [@guizot](#): > > True. To be clear, though, the OP posed only the first question. Yes, I thought that was clear by my wording. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-describes-giving-someone-an-epithet-that-predates-their-time/824967.md?page=1)