Archaism
//ˈɑɹ.kiˌɪz.əm// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The adoption or imitation of archaic words or style. countable, uncountable
- 2 the use of an archaic expression wordnet
- 3 An archaic word, style, etc. countable, uncountable
"In this text, the word "methinks" appears to be a deliberate archaism."
Example
More examples"It is not improbable that, like English poets of a later time, Layamon affected a certain archaism in language, as giving greater beauty and interest to his style."
Etymology
17th century, from New Latin archaismus, from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊσμός (arkhaïsmós, “an antiquated phrase or style”), from ἀρχαίζω (arkhaízō, “to model one's style upon that of ancient writers”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “old, ancient”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.