(ˈ)är|kāik, (ˈ)ȧ|k- adjective
Etymology: French or Greek; French archaïque, from Greek archaïkos old-fashioned, from archaios ancient + -ikos -ic — more at archae-
1. : relating to, belonging to, or having the characteristics of an earlier and often more primitive time : old-fashioned , antiquated
many procedures of the law have long seemed archaic to laymen — W.O.Douglas
2.
a. : having the characteristics of the language of the past and surviving in the present chiefly in legal language (as malice aforethought ), in biblical or ecclesiastical language (as thou art, brethren, saith ), or in the language of poetry, imaginative prose, and especially historical fiction (as belike, methinks, in sooth )☞In this dict. the label archaic is affixed to words and senses relatively common in earlier times but infrequently used in present-day English
b. : current without restriction in the present stage of a language but surviving from an earlier stage or from a parent language
verbs like sing-sang-sung which form their past and past participle by vowel change are an archaic feature of English
c. of a writer or literary work : characterized by the intentional use of old-fashioned language
3. : of or belonging to an early or formative stage or period in the development of an artistic style, especially a period immediately preceding one of fully realized expression
the archaic Greek art of the 6th century B.C.
4. : surviving essentially unchanged from an earlier period
archaic usages govern his conduct toward all the crucial issues of life — Norman Lewis
specifically : typical of a previously dominant evolutionary stage
sphenodon is an archaic reptile
5. : having the characteristics of primitive man and his animal forebears especially as represented in the unconscious and appearing in behavior as manifestations of the unconscious
6. usually capitalized : of or belonging to a prehistoric period to which has been assigned the earliest known culture or cultures of a particular area
Synonyms: see old