The effective use of outdated expressions for poetic, ironic, or elevated connotation. Scott and Tennyson, in using archaisms to give color to conversation in historical romance, rendered themselves guilty of what Robert Louis Stevenson called...

In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately (to achieve a specific effect) or as part of a specific jargon (for example in law) or formula (for example in religious...