archaic
Plural: archaics
Adjective Satellite
- so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
- "archaic laws"
- little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
- "archaic forms of life"
Noun
- The 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.).
- (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
Adj
- Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
- No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity and are still likely to be understood by well-educated speakers and are found in historical texts.
- Belonging to the archaic period.
Adjective
- Very old or old-fashioned; no longer in everyday use.
Examples
- Many valid Scrabble words, like ’thee’ and ’thou’, are quite archaic.
Origin / Etymology
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, “I am first”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).
Synonyms
antediluvian, antiquated, primitive, dated, obsolete, old fashioned
Scrabble Score: 14
archaic: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordarchaic: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
archaic: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary