36 examples of anachronyms

Anachronyms are words that are used “in an anachronistic way, by referring to something in a way that is appropriate only for a former or later time.” (Source) I chanced upon the term through a Reddit post, and was immediately charmed, so I thought I would make a list of them. There are many more than thirty-six out there, but here are the ones that are most mentioned online, supplemented with a few that I liked a lot myself. If you know of any more, let me know in the comments!

Update: myself and some others on Bluesky have been confused about the “later” part of the above definition. All the examples below are appropriate for a former time, not a later time, so what is that all about?

The way to think about it is that an anachronym is a certain kind of anachronism. If that confuses you, because you think of an anachronism as an error in chronology, like a Viking taking out a credit card, then you are like me ten minutes ago. I have since learned that an anachronism can also refer to an object or person that is out of place in a certain time more generally, like a rotary dial phone in 2025.

An anachronym, then, is simply an anachronism that takes the form of a word or phrase. It can be a Viking saying “I got rizz” (appropriate in a later time) or the saying “to dial a number” in 2025 (appropriate in a former time). 

Anyhoo, the list below is all about anachronyms that we use today, that refer to older technology. That doesn’t mean that the old sense of the word doesn’t get used at all anymore. Just like some people still use rotary phones in 2025, there are also still people that clock into a mechanical clock, or that use a physical clipboard. It’s just that the newer meaning still refers to that technology without making use of it anymore.

Bookmark

• Original meaning: A physical marker placed in a book to indicate where the reader left off.
• Newer meaning: A saved link or shortcut to a specific webpage or document.

CC (carbon copy)

• Original meaning: Refers to copying a document using carbon paper.
• Newer meaning: Used in emails to send a copy to secondary recipients.

Clipboard

• Original meaning: A flat board with a clip at the top for holding papers.
• Newer meaning: A temporary storage space for copied or cut text and images on a computer.

Cloakroom

• Original meaning: a room for cloaks
• Newer meaning: a room for coats (in the UK some people call teh lavatory the “cloakroom”)

to Clock in

• Original meaning: To use a mechanical time clock to record work start times.
• Newer meaning: Logging in or recording work hours digitally.

to Cut and paste

• Original meaning: Refers to physically cutting pieces of paper and pasting (sticking with a kind of glue) them elsewhere.
• Newer meaning: Moving text or images from one place to another on a computer.

to Dial a phone number

• Original meaning: To rotate the dial on a rotary phone to call a number.
• Newer meaning: To touch a screen to call a number.

Doorbell

• Original meaning: A mechanical bell operated by pulling a cord or pressing a button to alert residents.
• Newer meaning: Often an electronic chime, with some now integrated into smart home systems (e.g., video doorbells).

to Film a video

• Original meaning: To record using photographic film in a camera.
• Newer meaning: To record using digital devices like phones or camcorders.

Footage

• Original meaning: Refers to film recorded on physical reels measured in feet. From early 35 mm silent film, which is traditionally measured in feet and frames. The fact that film was measured by length in cutting rooms, and that there are 16 frames in a foot of 35 mm film, which roughly represented 1 second of screen time in some early silent films, made feet a natural unit of measure for film. (Source)
• Newer meaning: Refers to video content, regardless of the medium or length.

Glove compartment

• Original meaning: A small compartment in cars originally used to store gloves.
• Newer meaning: A storage space for various items in a car, rarely used for gloves.

Ice box

• Original meaning: A chilled box used before the invention of modern refrigerators, kept cool with ice blocks.
• Newer meaning: Informal term for a refrigerator, though rarely used now.

Inbox

• Original meaning: A physical box (though more like a tray) for incoming paper correspondence.
• Newer meaning: A digital space for receiving emails or messages.

Lowercase/ uppercase

• Original meaning: Refers to the smaller letters stored in the lower section of a typesetter’s case, or the bigger letters stored in the upper section
• Newer meaning: Refers to the small/ big version of letters in written or digital text.

Podcast

• Original meaning: Digital audio or video content distributed online, named after the iPod, where it was initially popular.
• Newer meaning: Streaming or downloadable audio content, with no connection to the now largely obsolete iPod.

Rewind

• Original meaning: To manually or mechanically wind tape or film backward to a previous point.
• Newer meaning: To go back to a previous point in a digital video or audio file.

to Ring up a sale

• Original meaning: To record a sale using a mechanical cash register, where each transaction was accompanied by the literal ringing of a bell.
• Newer meaning: To process a transaction, typically using an electronic point-of-sale system, with no bell involved.

to Roll up/roll down your car window

• Original meaning: To manually raise or lower car windows using a crank.
• Newer meaning: Pressing a button to electronically move car windows. (This one could be debated, as there is still some sort of rolling mechanism in the car door. It was so often mentioned on forums that I decided to include it anyway.)

Run-of-the-mill

• Original meaning:  The mill in question was a weaving mill and the articles first called ‘run of the mill’ were clothes. (Source) The run of the mill was all the stuff that was made by the mill before it had been graded or checked for quality. The stuff could be good. Could be bad. Could be average. (Source)
• Newer meaning: ordinary or average

Silverware

• Original meaning: Eating utensils made from real silver.
• Newer meaning: Eating utensils made from various materials, usually stainless steel.

Software patch

• Original meaning: a physical patch, with tape, on a punchcard. (Cardboard punchcards were used to program some of the first computers) You can see a picture here.
• Newer meaning: a new piece of code added to improve a computer program.

to Step on the gas

• Original meaning: To press the accelerator pedal in a car to increase speed, originally referencing cars powered by petrol (gasoline).
• Newer meaning: To accelerate any car, also electric ones

Stock footage

• Original meaning: Pre-recorded film stored in physical archives (“in the stock room”) for reuse.
• Newer meaning: Pre-recorded digital video clips used for various projects.

to Subtweet (the main term in the article that inspired this post)

• Original meaning: A social media term referring to a veiled criticism on Twitter.
• Newer meaning: Refers to veiled criticisms on social media platforms in general. It can no longer refer to Twitter, as this is now “X.”

to Tape a TV programme

• Original meaning: To record a TV programme on magnetic tape using a video recorder.
• Newer meaning: To record video digitally, with no tape involved.

Tin foil

• Original meaning: Thin sheets of metal made from tin, used for cooking or wrapping.
• Newer meaning: Typically refers to aluminium foil, as tin is no longer in common use.

Track (music)

• Original meaning: Refers to the grooves on a vinyl record. One song is one long winding track around the record. Between songs, there was a break in the track, meaning the first song was the first “track”, etc.
• Newer meaning: A single piece of audio in an album or playlist.

Double anachronyms

Album

• Original meaning: A physical folder for holding records together; in the time of 78 rpm records, one record could only play for 3.5 minutes. Longer pieces of music were therefore released in albums. (If you wanted to hear a longer piece of music, you had to keep putting the next record onto your player!)
• Next meaning: A long-player record with several songs
• Newer meaning: A digital collection of songs released together.

Dashboard

• Original meaning: A wooden board fixed to a carriage to protect the driver from mud or other debris “dashed up” (thrown up) by the horses’ hooves
• Next meaning: a control panel in a car
• Newer meaning: a digital interface on a device or software.

to Hang up the phone

• Original meaning: To physically hang the earpiece of a phone onto a hook on the wall.
• Next meaning: To place a telephone receiver back on its cradle (which is not really hanging, but more like placing or putting, so it was already an anachronym at this point)
• Newer meaning: To end a phone call, typically by pressing a button or tapping a screen.

to Log in

• Original meaning: if you wanted to know how fast your ship was going, you would drop a log over the side. The log would stay more or less in place, while the ship moved away. The log was tied to a piece of string with knots at regular intervals. You could then count how fast the knots were passing over the side of your ship in 30 seconds. (Hence knots for speed). The speeds were recorded in the logbook.
• Next meaning: the ship’s logbook became a book to record all kinds of important events on the ship, not just the speed
• Next meaning: a logbook became a physical book that was used in all kinds of situations where records needed to be kept over time. One such usage was a logbook for people going in and out of a building.
• Newer meaning: to enter your username and password into a computer program to be able to start using it

Presentation slide

• Original meaning: The word goes as far back as magic lanterns (1819). A slide was originally a hand-painted picture on glass. So-called, I assume, because you would slide these glass pictures in and out of the slide-holder.
• Next meaning: Physical plastic slides with a printed photograph used in projectors for presentations. (Was it already an anachronym at this point? Did you slide them in and out of their holders, or was it more a putting situation?)
• Newer meaning: Digital presentation pages, commonly associated with PowerPoint or other software.

to Tune into something

• Original meaning: to turn the dial on a radio or television until you find the programme you want
• Next meaning: to press a button and go straight to the programme you wanted
• Newer meaning: to choose a programme on your digital device. (You still hear Podcast hosts say “thanks for tuning in!”)

Metaphors that are (arguably) anachronyms

Are the blow phrases “metaphors based on old technology”, or are they anachronyms? Where does the one end and the other start? Aren’t many of the above phrases also metaphors? It’s all too difficult for me, but I do know that the below phrases feel different from the ones above, but at the same time, they are too good not to mention!

A clean slate

• Original meaning: Refers to when people used to write on slate, a kind of black rock that is nowadays probably best known as roof tiles on old buildings. In the 18th and 19th century, it was used for blackboards, and students would get individual slates to practice writing etc. If you made a mistake, you could wipe your slate and start again with a clean slate.
• Newer meaning: to start again with a fresh beginning

A flash in the pan

• Original meaning: From the days of flintlock firearms, where the main charge was intended to be fired by a small charge of gunpowder in the priming pan. If the resultant fire did not pass through the touch hole and ignite the main charge, it produced noise and smoke, but no substantial effect, and was termed a flash in the pan. (Source)
• Newer meaning: A transient occurrence with no long-term effect.

Hot off the press

• Original meaning: News or publications freshly printed using a printing press. Newsprint used to be printed by a process called ‘hot metal printing’, which involved molten lead being introduced into a mould to form the printing block. (Source) After having just been printed on, newspapers felt warm (source)
• Newer meaning: Information or news that is brand new or freshly released.

to Get the sack

• Original meaning: an allusion to tradesmen, who owned their own tools and took them with them in a bag or sack when they were dismissed from employment. (Source)
• Newer meaning: to be dismissed from employment; (often portrayed in many films and TV shows by an office worker taking their personal possessions home in a cardboard box; this is obviously a strong mental image that has persisted through the ages)

Skeuomorphs; the visual counterparts of anachronyms

A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original (source)

• A lamp that looks like a candle
• The “save” icon on our computers that looks like a floppy disk
• The opened and closed envelope to show when emails are opened or unopened
• The little ribbon on female underpants that hark back to the time before elastic, when you had to tie the waistband yourself
• Decorative pillars in rooms and on the outside of buildings
• Plastic that has been made to look like wood, on floors, for example
• Buttons on websites that have been made to look like real 3D buttons
• Those little trains in tourist towns that are actually just a buggy pulling some carts

Gesture counterparts

Is it a skeuomorph if it is a gesture? I don’t know, but people had some great “gestures that refer to outdated technology” on Bluesky, so I would be remiss not to mention them here!

• Pretending to do a phone call by sticking out the little finger and the thumb 🤙
• Spin your hand to signal rolling the car window down
• Writing in the air, as if writing a check, to signal to the waiter that you want to pay your bill
• Pretending to turn a dial in the air to ask people to speak more softly by “turning the volume down”

Audio counterparts

This article is doing numbers on Bluesky, and some people over there have noted that there are also sounds that hark back to older technology

• The sound of a camera shutter when taking a photo with your phone
• The ringing of a mobile phone which sounds like a mechanical ring
• The “ca-ching” sound that signifies making money, which comes from the sound of old, mechanical cash-registers

The ones that didn’t make the list

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

This one gets mentioned a lot, but it doesn’t make the list because the famous origin story of this phrase just isn’t true.

Here’s the story: It has often been claimed that the “brass monkey” was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the “monkey” with its stack of cannon balls became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the “monkey.” (Source)

Cannon balls weren’t stored like that, they rested in wooden holes in a long plank (which makes much more sense on a ship). There was such a thing as a brass monkey in naval circles, but it refered to a certain kind of gun. We have written evidence for “It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey” from 1857, which strongly suggests the balls are also metaphorical.

File

• Original meaning: A physical folder or envelope for holding papers.
• Newer meaning: A digital document stored on a computer or device.
• Not on the list because: it went from meaning a whole folder, to a single document/ picture. Why?

Horsepower

• Not on the list because: Horsepower was always used to compare power stemming from technology to the number of horses that could, in theory, do the same thing; it was popularised by James Watt to talk about power from steam engines. People using four horses to drag a cart full of stones would have never said “this cart has four horse-power”.

Pencil lead

• Original meaning: The graphite core in pencils.
• Newer meaning: The graphite core in pencils.
• Not on the list because: the core was always graphite, never lead. People just thought graphite was a kind of lead.

Where does the word anachronym come from?

Thanks to the excellent account Quote Investigator on Bluesky, I now know the origin of this term.

Linguist Ben Zimmer was credited with coining anachronym because he used it in an interview with Adrienne LaFrance of The Atlantic back in Mar. 2014, for a piece she wrote about the word selfie. Zimmer, however, says that he did not coin it, but learned it online. He thinks he must have learned it from this message on the American Dialect Society mailing list from 2012.

Full story here.

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Photo credit: Bruno Cantuária, Pexels