Archaic Meaning
/ɑːˈkeɪ.ɪk/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, etc.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
noun(A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
Sentence Examples
The written form looks like an archaic form of English.
This expression is archaic.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dictionary listed the word 'thee' as an ____ term no longer used.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The company still uses some ____ computer systems from twenty years ago.
Word Origin & History
From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊκός (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to be first”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China."
— 2009, The Human Lineage, page 432:
"A person familiar with the dialect of certain portions of Massachusetts will not fail to recognize, in ordinary discourse, many words now noted in English vocabularies as archaic, the greater part of which were in common use about the time of the King James translation of the Bible. Shakespeare stands less in need of a glossary to most New Englanders than to many a native of the Old Country."
— 1848, James Russel Lowell, The Biglow Papers:
"There is in the best archaic coin work [of the Greeks] ... a strength and a delicacy which are often wanting in the fully developed art of a later age."
— 1887, Barclay V. Head, Historia Numorum A Manual Of Greek Numismatics:
"Brann's compass of words, idioms and phrases harks back to the archaic and reaches forward to the futuristic. Volume 1"
— 1898, William Cowper Brann, The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast:
"But now he is reinvented; he is on the way to establishing himself as the official interpreter of an ancient, archaic institution to the generations that are already distant in both time and culture from the world that sustains his grandmother."
— 2017 December 27, “The Guardian view on Prince Harry: the monarchy’s best insurance policy”, in the Guardian:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dictionary listed the word 'thee' as an ____ term no longer used.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The company still uses some ____ computer systems from twenty years ago.