Anachronism, Parachronism, Prochronism: Meanings of the Terms

Most contemporary English speakers have heard of the word anachronism, but people often misuse it. Knowing something about the term and its related words parachronism and prochronism will help readers use anachronism correctly and may even help them avoid the error that the word denotes.

Anachronism
Anachronism is all about time, specifically, an error in time. It is based on the Greek elements ana- ("back") and chronos ("time").

The etymology of the word looks like this: Modern English anachronism (which entered English in the 1600s), from Middle Greek anachronismos ("anachronism"), from anachronizesthai ("to be an anachronism"), from Late Greek anachronizein ("to be late"), from Greek ana- ("back, backward") plus chronizein ("to spend time, continue, linger"), from chronos ("time") plus -izein ("-ize").

Anachronism has two basic meanings in English: an error, and a person or thing that is in error.

The first meaning of anachronism (established in the 1600s) is an error in chronology, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, customs, and so on in regard to each other. For example, "The author committed an anachronism when he wrote that Julius Caesar had a wristwatch."

The second meaning of anachronism (established in the 1800s) is someone or something that is chronologically out of place, especially one from a former age that is incongruous in the present. For example, "Many people feel that an absolute monarchy is an anachronism in the modern world." This sense was formerly (in the 1800s) called a practical anachronism.

In literature, romantic writers sometimes use anachronisms for dramatic effects despite the historical errors involved. Shakespeare, for example, put cannon in his historical drama King John (c. 1595) even though cannon were not used in England till about two hundred years after King John's death (13th century).

Humorists, of course, often deliberately use anachronisms for comic or satiric effects. Mark Twain, for example, put a 19th-century man into the Middle Ages in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).

The most common misuse of anachronism stems from forgetting that the word requires the element of time. The word is misused in all these examples: "She is an anachronism: a shy person with a gift for understanding people," "It is an anachronism that the humanitarian who went to the peace conference was a decorated war hero," and "We face the anachronism of medically deprived people in a rich, compassionate land."

When the element of time is missing from the incongruity, the writer/speaker is probably referring to a paradox or an anomaly.

Parachronism, Prochronism
Parachronism entered English in the 1600s. It is based on the Greek elements para- ("beyond") and chronos ("time").

It denotes a specific kind of anachronism: a chronological error committed by placing an event, person, or thing after (later than, "beyond") its actual historical date. Assigning the founding of the United States to the Civil War period is a parachronism.

An obsolete term synonymous with parachronism is metachronism, based on the Greek elements meta- ("after") and chronos ("time"). It was little used after the 1600s.

Prochronism entered English in the 1600s. It is based on the Greek elements pro- ("before") plus chronos ("time").

It denotes a specific kind of anachronism: a chronological error committed by placing an event, person, or thing ahead of (earlier than, "before") its actual historical date. Assigning airplanes to the American Civil War is a prochronism.
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Bernstein, Theodore M. The Careful Writer. New York: Free Press-Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004 (CD-ROM).

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.