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  1. archaic love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period, especially one that develops into a classical stage of civilization: an archaic bronze statuette; Archaic Greece.
  2. adj. No longer current or applicable; antiquated: archaic laws. See Synonyms at old.
  3. adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of words and language that were once in regular use but are now relatively rare and suggestive of an earlier style or period.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Marked by the characteristics of an earlier period; characterized by archaism; primitive; old-fashioned; antiquated: as, an archaic word or phrase.

Wiktionary

  1. n. archaeology, US, usually capitalized A general term for the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, &c.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
  2. n. (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
  3. adj. Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
  4. adj. of words No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Of or characterized by antiquity or archaism; antiquated; obsolescent.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
  2. adj. so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period

Etymologies

  1. From archaism ("ancient or obsolete phrase or expression") or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαικός (arkhaikos, "old-fashioned"), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaios, "from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old"), from ἀρχή (arkhē, "beginning, origin"), from ἄρχω (arkhō, "I am first"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Greek arkhaikos, old-fashioned, from arkhaios, ancient, from arkhē, beginning, from arkhein, to begin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • reesetee I use the obsolete tag often (don't know whether I was the first) because I have a list of obsolete words. From my rare book cataloging background, I tend to use obsolete in a different way than archaic, similar to the way the OED uses them. As I understand it, "obsolete" describes a word that is no longer in use at all, whereas "archaic" refers to a specific definition or meaning of a word that is no longer in use. Oct 22, 2008

  • chained_bear VanishedOne's question on slate reminded me. I was wondering, yesterday, what the real difference is between obsolete and archaic, in terms of the tags on this site. I've been using archaic (mostly) to tag stuff, but there are many, many more terms tagged obsolete. (I noticed that the obsolete tag appears to have gotten started on obsolete (go figure).)

    To me, obsolete means that you won't (probably) ever hear it again, whereas archaic words pop up all the time--in history, law, and other fields. (Well, maybe just in history and law.)

    I guess my question is, does it matter? Is there a real difference between these two designations, or only in my small rattly brain? Oct 22, 2008

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‘archaic’ has been looked up 7871 times, loved by 10 people, added to 130 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.