archaic |ärˈkāik| adjective very old or old-fashioned : prisons are run on archaic methods. See note at old . • (of a word or a style of language) no longer in everyday use but sometimes used to impart an old-fashioned flavor. • of an early period of art or culture, esp. the 7th–6th centuries bc in Greece : the archaic temple at Corinth. DERIVATIVES archaically adverb
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French archaïque, from Greek arkhaikos, from arkhaios, from arkhē ‘beginning.’
