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Archaic vs Antique - What's the difference?

archaic | antique |

Antique is a synonym of archaic.



As nouns the difference between archaic and antique

is that archaic is a general term for the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, &c.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.) while antique is an old piece of furniture, household item, or other similar item.

As adjectives the difference between archaic and antique

is that archaic is of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated while antique is old, used especially of furniture and household items; out of date.

As a verb antique is

to shop for antiques; to search for antiques.

archaic

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (archaeology, US, usually capitalized) A general term for the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘ Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American?paleolithic’, &c .) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
  • * 1958 , Wiley, Gordon R., and Philip Phillips, Method and Theory in American Archaeology , University of Chicago Press, Chicago, page #107:
  • [...] Archaic Stage [...] the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into environmental conditions approximately those of the present.
  • (paleoanthropology) (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens .
  • * 2009 , The Human Lineage , page 432:
  • [...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
  • * 1848 , , The Biglow Papers :
  • A person familiar with the dialect of certain portions of Massachusetts will not fail to recognize, in ordinary discourse, many words now noted in English vocabularies as archaic , the greater part of which were in common use about the time of the King James translation of the Bible. Shakespeare stands less in need of a glossary to most New Englanders than to many a native of the Old Country.
  • * 1887 , , Historia Numorum A Manual Of Greek Numismatics :
  • There is in the best archaic coin work [of the Greeks] ... a strength and a delicacy which are often wanting in the fully developed art of a later age.
  • * 1898 , , The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast :
  • Brann's compass of words, idioms and phrases harks back to the archaic and reaches forward to the futuristic.'' Volume 1
  • (of words) No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity.
  • *
  • * '>citation
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Belonging to the archaic period
  • Synonyms

    * dated * obsolete * old fashioned

    Derived terms

    * archaically, archaism

    References

    * * *

    antique

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Old, used especially of furniture and household items; out of date.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“There the cause of death was soon ascertained?; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]”}}

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An old piece of furniture, household item, or other similar item.
  • An old person.
  • Verb

    (antiqu)
  • (label) To shop for antiques; to search for antiques.
  • (label) To make an object appear to be an antique in some way.