Work akin to "anachronism"?

[Alain Dekker]

I'm not sure how to ask this question, but you know how you watch a movie
about, say, the Ancient Eqyptians and one of the characters is wearing a
wristwatch. There's a word for that faux pas, which is, I think
"anachronism".

My question is, say you were watching a movie about polar bears and they
showed you, or talked about, polar bears vaching and eating Emporer
penguins.

Now polar bears are strictly North Pole and Emporer penguins are strictly
South Pole. This cannot happen.

What is the term, if there is one, for this, please?

Thanks,
Alain

[Egbert White]

On Sun, 8 Feb 2009 23:25:00 -0000, "Alain Dekker"

Post by Alain Dekker
I'm not sure how to ask this question, but you know how you watch a movie
about, say, the Ancient Eqyptians and one of the characters is wearing a
wristwatch. There's a word for that faux pas, which is, I think
"anachronism".
My question is, say you were watching a movie about polar bears and they
showed you, or talked about, polar bears vaching and eating Emporer
penguins.
Now polar bears are strictly North Pole and Emporer penguins are strictly
South Pole. This cannot happen.
What is the term, if there is one, for this, please?

Anachorism.

_The Oxford Companion to the English Language_ gives as an example
tigers in Africa in an Edgar Rice Burroughs story.

Or anatopism. Onelook.com gets some hits on it. For example, with
lots of quotations, <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anatopism>.

The online _Oxford English Dictionary_ calls 'anatopism' rare and has
the following entry for it:

anatopism
rare.
A putting of a thing out of its proper place, a faulty
arrangement.
1812 COLERIDGE Rem. I. 317 In arranging which [books] the
puzzled librarian must commit an anachronism in order to avoid
an anatopism.
1850 DE QUINCEY Wks. XVI. 72 Geographical blunders, or
what might be called anatopisms.

_OED_ has:

anachorism
nonce-wd.
Something out of place in, or foreign to, the country.
1862 LOWELL Bigl. Papers Ser. II. 55 Opinions [that are]
anachronisms and anachorisms, foreign both to the age and
the country.

Interesting to see, both words are formed on Greek roots, and '-top-'
and '-chor-' are both Greek roots meaning 'place' according to the
_OED_ etymologies.

By the way, I would have thought there !were! tigers in Africa, but
some Wikipedia hits say no, not naturally.

[Egbert White]

On Sun, 8 Feb 2009 23:25:00 -0000, "Alain Dekker"

Post by Alain Dekker
I'm not sure how to ask this question,

There's a way to not ask it, and that's to post it separately to more
than one newsgroup. You posted it under different subject lines to
ALE and AUE. If you want to post to more than one newsgroup, proper
netiquette says to crosspost. It saves bandwidth as compared to
posting separately.

Post by Alain Dekker
but you know how you watch a movie
about, say, the Ancient Eqyptians and one of the characters is wearing a
wristwatch. There's a word for that faux pas, which is, I think
"anachronism".
My question is, say you were watching a movie about polar bears and they
showed you, or talked about, polar bears vaching and eating Emporer
penguins.
Now polar bears are strictly North Pole and Emporer penguins are strictly
South Pole. This cannot happen.
What is the term, if there is one, for this, please?

You've had answers in both newsgroups, 'anatopism' and 'anachorism.'
The former seems preferable to me, since there are other '-top-' words
to keep it company ('topography,' 'toponym,' plus many less familiar
words in which 'top-' means 'place.').

The roots '-top-' and '-chor-' can both mean 'place' in Greek. A
wild-card search on '*chor*' in a shorter Oxford gets lots of hits,
but none of them seem to use '-chor-' for 'place.' I wonder if there
are some that I missed in the long list, or some that the wild-card
search didn't find.

It seems strange to me that 'anatopism' is rare (as stated in a
shorter Oxford). I should think it would find about as much use as
'anachronism.' This makes me wonder if there's a more common term to
refer to something that's geographically misplaced, one that hasn't
surfaced yet in this thread.

Incidentally, it seems worthwhile to mention here 'parachronism,'
anticipating a time when some reader may be curious to know a term
that refers to something from an earlier time that's unlikely still to
occur at the time to which the context refers. It could be thought of
as the opposite of 'anachronism.' Witch trials in 21st-century Salem
would be a parachronism. Television in 17th-century Salem would be an
anachronism.

[Alain Dekker]

Just got back from holiday to read this answer...thanks very much! I shall
try to find a chance to use this term at least once this week! :o) However,
at my work, the use of words like "anatopism" is likely to be one more
example of an anatopism!

Regards,
Alain

Post by Egbert White
On Sun, 8 Feb 2009 23:25:00 -0000, "Alain Dekker"

Post by Alain Dekker
I'm not sure how to ask this question,

There's a way to not ask it, and that's to post it separately to more
than one newsgroup. You posted it under different subject lines to
ALE and AUE. If you want to post to more than one newsgroup, proper
netiquette says to crosspost. It saves bandwidth as compared to
posting separately.

Post by Alain Dekker
but you know how you watch a movie
about, say, the Ancient Eqyptians and one of the characters is wearing a
wristwatch. There's a word for that faux pas, which is, I think
"anachronism".
My question is, say you were watching a movie about polar bears and they
showed you, or talked about, polar bears vaching and eating Emporer
penguins.
Now polar bears are strictly North Pole and Emporer penguins are strictly
South Pole. This cannot happen.
What is the term, if there is one, for this, please?

You've had answers in both newsgroups, 'anatopism' and 'anachorism.'
The former seems preferable to me, since there are other '-top-' words
to keep it company ('topography,' 'toponym,' plus many less familiar
words in which 'top-' means 'place.').
The roots '-top-' and '-chor-' can both mean 'place' in Greek. A
wild-card search on '*chor*' in a shorter Oxford gets lots of hits,
but none of them seem to use '-chor-' for 'place.' I wonder if there
are some that I missed in the long list, or some that the wild-card
search didn't find.
It seems strange to me that 'anatopism' is rare (as stated in a
shorter Oxford). I should think it would find about as much use as
'anachronism.' This makes me wonder if there's a more common term to
refer to something that's geographically misplaced, one that hasn't
surfaced yet in this thread.
Incidentally, it seems worthwhile to mention here 'parachronism,'
anticipating a time when some reader may be curious to know a term
that refers to something from an earlier time that's unlikely still to
occur at the time to which the context refers. It could be thought of
as the opposite of 'anachronism.' Witch trials in 21st-century Salem
would be a parachronism. Television in 17th-century Salem would be an
anachronism.
--
"How dreary, to be...Somebody! How public, like a frog, to
tell one's name, the live-long June, to an admiring bog!"
<Emily Dickinson>

[Yvan Hall]

www.superaffiliate7.com

Log on to Find out how you can make money by clicking PTC Sites, my Web
Site.
You will find good Affiiliates for health products, such as EDTA-Oral
Chelation,
Apricot kernels for cancer treament, Other affiliates are for Computers,
household products, Satellite TV (You may watch International Channel on
your Computer),
Download Commmercial Movies, Email, Free Horoscope.

Post by Alain Dekker
I'm not sure how to ask this question, but you know how you watch a movie
about, say, the Ancient Eqyptians and one of the characters is wearing a
wristwatch. There's a word for that faux pas, which is, I think
"anachronism".
My question is, say you were watching a movie about polar bears and they
showed you, or talked about, polar bears vaching and eating Emporer
penguins.
Now polar bears are strictly North Pole and Emporer penguins are strictly
South Pole. This cannot happen.
What is the term, if there is one, for this, please?
Thanks,
Alain

[Bob Cunningham]

[nonresponsive response omitted]

Post by Alain Dekker
I'm not sure how to ask this question, but you know how you watch a movie
about, say, the Ancient Eqyptians and one of the characters is wearing a
wristwatch. There's a word for that faux pas, which is, I think
"anachronism".
My question is, say you were watching a movie about polar bears and they
showed you, or talked about, polar bears vaching and eating Emporer
penguins.
Now polar bears are strictly North Pole and Emporer penguins are strictly
South Pole. This cannot happen.
What is the term, if there is one, for this, please?

In case no one has given you a word, "anatopism" seems to be what you
want. I don't find it in a couple of American dictionaries, but it's
in the British _New Shorter Oxford_:

anatopism [...] n. rare. E19. [f. Gk ANA- + topos place + -ISM.]
A putting of a thing out of its proper place.

See also a Wikipedia article at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatopism>.

And
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anatopism>

There's a less helpful definition of "anatopism" in a medical
dictionary at <http://www.mondofacto.com/facts/dictionary?anatopism>:

anatopism medical dictionary
Failure to conform to the cultural pattern.
Origin: G. Ana, backward, + topos, place