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25 August 2009

Ask Mecha: What do you call someone who's living in the wrong time/era/decade? →[More:] I read a specific word for this earlier this week, and it's been driving me nuts! It's not anachronism, though I think it had "chron" or "chronos" in there somewhere.

post by: Juliet Banana at: 16:11 | 26 comments

anachronistic

posted by DarkForest 25 August | 16:14

oh. sorry, didn't read closely enough

posted by DarkForest 25 August | 16:15

a weenis.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 25 August | 16:19

Anachronistic does work, which is why this is so hard to search for. I remember there was a different word though and OH GOD THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY.

posted by Juliet Banana 25 August | 16:30

Archaic?

posted by essexjan 25 August | 16:37

Roget's gives me parachronistic and prochronism.

posted by DarkForest 25 August | 16:51

anachronic?

anachronous?

posted by jason's_planet 25 August | 16:51

asynchronous?

posted by jason's_planet 25 August | 16:53

protonostalgia?

posted by getoffmylawn 25 August | 16:55

No, fuck, I know this word too, or did.

posted by jessamyn 25 August | 17:31

chrononaut?

posted by jessamyn 25 August | 17:34

anatopism, or parachrony/parachronism?

I am dying to know the answer, as I am certain I was born about 60 years later than I should have been!

posted by getoffmylawn 25 August | 17:36

Chronoclasm.

posted by The Whelk 25 August | 18:21

Miniver Cheevy!

posted by JanetLand 25 August | 18:48

...though I think it had "chron" or "chronos" in there somewhere.

Um...Hi! I have to admit it is about 1975 in my apartment.

(If you define it very loosely, atavism might work.)

posted by Kronos_to_Earth 25 August | 19:31

parachronism? prochronism?

posted by unsurprising 25 August | 20:13

Me.

posted by jonmc 25 August | 20:37

anachronism

posted by rollick 25 August | 21:41

JanetLand, marry me! I have loved that poem since I was a wee lad.

As to the larger question, I'd just like to grump that we live in such a deeply and desperately identity-soaked culture that questions like this have to arise in the first place. Your aesthetics, tastes and social scenes are genuinely yours, in your era, and not even so important in the grand scheme of things. Bah humbug etc.

posted by Firas 25 August | 22:05

"Doctor"

posted by pompomtom 25 August | 23:36

Oh no Firas, being in the wrong time is a real problem! Just listen to the poignancy of this little 1950s number.

posted by JanetLand 26 August | 07:50

Kronos beat me to Atavist. Have some atavists anyway.

posted by TheophileEscargot 26 August | 07:52

Retro anything? Throwback? Recapitulation?

posted by dhartung 26 August | 09:42

I'm going to go with atavist. There might still be something out there, but that works well enough.

posted by Juliet Banana 26 August | 09:42

Thank you Kronos!

posted by Juliet Banana 26 August | 12:00

You're welcome!

posted by Kronos_to_Earth 26 August | 15:38

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