ar·cha·ism

(är′kē-ĭz′əm, -kā-)

1. An archaic word, phrase, idiom, or other expression.

2. An archaic style, quality, or usage.

[New Latin archaeismus, from Greek arkhaismos, from arkhaios, ancient; see archaic.]

ar′cha·ist n.

ar′cha·is′tic (-ĭs′tĭk) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	archaist - a person who archaizes individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"
	2.	archaist - an expert or collector of antiquities antiquarian, antiquary expert - a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully

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References in periodicals archive

(27) Munro offers a dichotomy of archaism and nostalgia that insists on the latter's almost parasitic nature; for the archaist 'seek[s] to recreate and reshape, rather than simply to remember or fantasize' like the nostalgic.

On the possibility of early modern nostalgias

That Vincent is not a mere archaist is evidenced by an extraordinary passage wherein he combines his profound interest in the preservation of apostolic truth with an equally firm insistence that development must occur over time.

St. Vincent of Lerins and the development of Christian doctrine

He also edited and contributed translations to Modernist Archaist: Selected Poems by Osip Mandelstam (Whale and Star, 2008).

Poetry in the Cloud: An Experiment, Results, and n+1 Hypotheses

This work revolves around the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, a consciously archaist outdoorsy organization founded in 1920 by one John Hargrave, a renegade Boy Scout commissioner who had turned against the late-Victorian militarism of the movement's founder, Robert Baden-Powell, and toward rituals drawn from Saxon, Norse, and American Indian culture.

Olivia Plender

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