anachronistic

The first thing to do in order to understand the meaning of the anachronistic term is to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it is a word that derives from the Greek, exactly from "anachronikós", which is the result of the sum of the following delimited parts:
-The prefix “ana-”, which can be translated as “against” or “on”.
-The noun "chronos", which is the name of the god of time.
-The suffix “-ikos”, which is synonymous with “relative to”.

The adjective anachronistic is used to qualify what has anachronism: that is, it turns out incongruous with respect to the time in which it is presented. These are elements that, due to their condition or their characteristics, are typical of a different time.

There are two main types of anachronisms. When an old component is located at a later time, it is spoken of parachronism. Suppose a filmmaker, in 2015, you decide to distribute your new movie in cassettes with magnetic tape (Vhs). This decision is anachronistic since, in the XXI century, VHS cassettes are no longer used. Instead, the logical thing would be the distribution in Blu-ray, DVD or other digital formats.

Another kind of anachronism implies that a component of a certain time is situated in an earlier epoch. Some name this anachronism as prochronism, although the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) does not include this term in its dictionary. A case of this type of anachronism occurs if, in a film about the Ancient Egypt that takes place during the construction of the Great Sphinx of Giza, a character appears driving a car. This element is anachronistic: it supposes a prochronism because automobiles were invented thousands of years after that time.

Anachronistic elements can appear in everyday life. Send paper letters through the post mail can be considered as an anachronistic practice taking into account the existence of the email. The same could be said of who moves to horse when there are numerous motor vehicles to cover great distances.

It is curious to know that, on numerous occasions, anachronisms have occurred in the cinema that have gone unnoticed by the public and that they are basically due to errors of the team that made the films in question. Clear examples are the following:
-In the film "Braveheart" (1995), the characters appear with kilts that, according to historians, would not become popular until four centuries later.
-In the film “El Cid” (1961), which narrates the adventures of the famous Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid Campeador, there is talk of “Spain”. But this concept of nation did not exist at that time, in any case they should have used the word “Castilla”.
-In the feature film "Gladiator" (2000), the gladiator protagonist appears imprisoned with a type of padlock that was created in the United States in the 16th century.
-In the Oscar-winning “Titanic” (1997), the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio makes reference to Lake Wissota. However, this one, which is artificial, was not created until five years after the tragedy of that boat.