anachronism
something placed in the wrong time
Root
- chron / chrono: time
Other words with the chron / chrono root
- anachronistic: belonging to the wrong time period
- chronic: lasting a long time or recurring
- chronological: arranged by time order
- chronology: the order of events in time
- synchronize: to make things happen at the same time
Chron gives time: an anachronism is a time-error made visible.
The plastic wristwatch was an anachronism in the Civil War painting.
An anachronism is what happens when history gets its calendar scrambled. The word is less scary if you hear chron inside it: time is the skeleton.