Link Centre Dictionary

archaic

arc·haic

UK/ɑːˈkeɪ.ɪk/ US/ɑɹˈkeɪ.ɪk/ uncommon us

adjective

1.

so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period

  • “a ramshackle antediluvian tenement”
  • “antediluvian ideas”
  • “archaic laws”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type

  • “archaic forms of life”
  • “primitive mammals”
  • “the okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • archaic smile

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.