# What's the word for...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690 "2011-06-24T09:50:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690/1 "2011-06-24T09:50:34Z")

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OK, so we all know what “anthropomorphism” means – roughly, imagining human characteristics/thoughts/emotions where such things simply don’t exist.

(Assuming, for example, that a horse is burning with patriotic fervor, or that a rock is plagued by a bad conscience.)

But what about when you make the mistake of imagining specifically _modern_ thoughts and distinctions _in an earlier era_, where such thoughts and distinctions simply did not yet exist?

For example, assuming that Ötzi The Iceman was either a “capitalist” or a “communist”, or that the folks on the Mayflower were either “Unionists” or “Confederates”, when it’s safe to assume that such terms were completely alien to them?

Is there a word for that? (If not, let’s come up with one! “Contempomorphize”, anyone…? :dubious:)

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**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690/2 "2011-06-24T09:55:02Z")

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I don’t know, but I would think one might often just use “anachronism” and assume the reader/listener can infer the time-directionality from the context.

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690/3 "2011-06-24T12:44:31Z")

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> [@iamnotbatman](#):
>
> I don’t know, but I would think one might often just use “anachronism” and assume the reader/listener can infer the time-directionality from the context.

This sounds right to me. You can of course, use multiple words and recast the sentence.

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**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690/4 "2011-06-24T13:36:46Z")

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> [@iamnotbatman](#):
>
> I don’t know, but I would think one might often just use “anachronism” and assume the reader/listener can infer the time-directionality from the context.

I agree. “Anachoristic ideology” is the best fit I find for the OP’s first two examples, “historical anachorism” probably covers the second two.

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**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for/586690/5 "2011-06-26T17:29:26Z")

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Ah! Interesting.

Thanks, lads.