In language, an archaism is the deliberate use of an older form that has fallen out of current use.

Usage

Archaisms are most frequently encountered in poetry, law, and ritual writing and speech. Their deliberate use can be subdivided into literary archaisms, which seeks to evoke the style of older speech and writing; and lexical archaisms, the use of words no longer in common use. Poetry (from Ancient Greek: (poiéo/poió) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional... Law (from the late Old English lagu of probable North Germanic origin) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide... A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. ... Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction... A lexicon is usually a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i. ...

Archaisms are kept alive by these ritual and literary uses and by the study of older literature. Should they remain recognised, they can be revived, as the word anent was in this past century.

English

In English, one sure indicator of a deliberately archaic style is the contemporary use of the second person singular pronoun thou and its related case and verb forms. Ironically, the word thou fell out of English speech because it was thought abruptly colloquial, like French tu (see T-V distinction). Thou is now seen in current English usage only in literature that deliberately seeks to evoke an older style, though there are also some still-read older works that use thou, especially religious texts like the King James Bible. The word ye and its related forms also are indicative of archaism, however in spoken English it might be hard to tell the difference, especially if the speaker has an accent that seems strange to the listener. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Most modern English speakers think of thou as a relic of Shakespeares day The word thou (pronounced with the th as in the) is a second person singular pronoun of the English language. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... A colloquialism is an informal expression, that is, an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ... In sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a language, unlike current English, has pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee. ... Fishers of Men, oil on panel by Adriaen van de Venne (1614) Various religious symbols Religion is commonly defined as a group of beliefs concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. ... Until the translation of the King James Version (KJV), an English translation of the Bible, commissioned for the benefit of the Church of England at the behest of King James I of England, translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English language had been a crime punishable by death. ... The two letter acronym YE can refer to: Young Entrepreneur, an entrepreneur who generally started young Yemen, the Republic of Yemen This page expands and disambiguates a two-letter combination which might be an abbreviation, an English word, a word in another language, any or all of these. ...

Syntax here

The compound adverbs and prepositions found in the writing of lawyers (e.g. heretofore, hereunto, thereof) are usually thought of as archaisms. Archaic syntax is also typically found in these ritual and legal contexts. (e.g. "With this ring I thee wed.") Archaisms are also used in the dialogue of historical novels in order to evoke the flavour of the period. Some may count as inherently funny words and are used for humorous effect. A lawyer is a person who advises clients in legal matters and represents them in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution. ... Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... The term dialogue (or dialog) expresses basically reciprocal conversation between two or more persons. ... A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... The belief that certain words are inherently funny, for reasons ranging from onomatopoeia to sexual innuendo, is widespread among people who work in humor, although there appears to be little objective support for the idea, nor is there any agreed-upon list of funny words. ... Humour or humor is the ability or quality of people, objects, or situations to evoke feelings of amusement in other people. ...

See also

• list of archaic English words and their modern equivalents

This is a list of archaic English words and their modern equivalents. ...

Alternative meanings

In anthropological studies of culture, archaism is defined as the absence of writing and subsistence economy. In history, archaism is used to connote a superior, albeit mythical, "golden age." Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος = human) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... The following is a list of subsistence techniques: Hunting and Gathering, also known as Foraging freeganism involves gathering of discarded food in the context of an urban environment gleaning involves the gathering of food that traditional farmers have left behind in their fields Cultivation Horticulture - plant cultivation, based on the...