Wherein a number of tropes and idioms corresponding with known discrepancies in olden-times, to-day, and future prognostications are accumulated in a list.
Likewise, one may find the following indexes of sufficient interest: Alternate History Tropes and Time Travel Tropes.
Tropes:
Subcategories:
- The Abridged History: Parodying and shortening real-life History, therefore leading to key events in one Common Historical Setting happening all at once.
- Anachronistic Animal: An animal that wasn't present at a particular point in history, or alternatively, a modern version of a domestic animal (or a descendant of an ancient species) appearing where its predecessors should be instead.
- Anachronistic Clue
- Anachronistic Orphanage
- Anachronistic Soundtrack
- Anachronism Stew
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age
- Artistic License – History: The work disregards factual historical information for the sake of the plot.
- Artistic License – Religion
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel
- Bamboo Technology
- Black Vikings: Characters of an implausible race given the setting and time period.
- Born in the Wrong Century: A person wishes they had existed in another time period.
- Cartoon Bug-Sprayer: Cartoon characters still use bug-sprayers of the type used in the early 20th century.
- Changed My Jumper: Time travelers wearing clothing from the wrong time period.
- Contemporary Caveman: A caveman ends up in modern times.
- Cosmetically Advanced Prequel: Because the development team has access to better equipment and techniques, the prequel consequently has a more advanced look to it than the work it is intended to take place before.
- Days of Future Past
- Decade Dissonance
- Disco Dan: A person who still engages in the fashion and fads of the past.
- Eerily Out-of-Place Object
- Enhanced Archaic Weapon
- Eternal Sexual Freedom: Works in the past do not show anyone having issues with sexual mores.
- Fantastic Plagiarism: A character trapped in the past survives by "creating" stories that are actually from the future.
- Fashions Never Change
- Font Anachronism
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: A fanciful being in the past somehow impersonates or knows of modern celebrities.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: A time-traveler gives modern technology to people in the past.
- Good Old Ways: A character intentionally uses outdated customs and technology.
- Gratuitous Katana: Katanas tend to show up in settings outside of a feudal Japanese context because they're cool.
- Hollywood Costuming
- Historical In-Joke
- Improperly Placed Firearms
- Like a Duck Takes to Water
- A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll"
- Living Ark
- Living Relic
- Love Transcends Spacetime
- No Backwards Compatibility in the Future
- One-Man Industrial Revolution
- Past Right Now: Something from the past exists in the present as it is with no time travel needed.
- Politically Correct History: A work taking place in the past deliberately glosses over or whitewashes the unpleasant aspects of the past that modern audiences might be offended by.
- Popular History
- Precrime Arrest: Someone gets arrested for a crime they haven't even committed yet.
- Present-Day Past
- Prochronic Product: An anachronism is invented that could not have been produced until significantly later.
- Purely Aesthetic Era
- Renaissance Fair
- Retro Universe: A world/dimension that’s modeled after a decade from the past.
- Schizo Tech: Technology that doesn't fit any one time period.
- Sex in a Shared Room: Due to lack of space and/or bedding, this was almost omnipresent back in the day. But, if it shows up in fiction, odds are it means something.
- Steam Never Dies: Both in media and in real life, most people think of steam trains when imagining trains in general.
- Time Dissonance
- Tomorrowland
- Totally Radical: Trying and failing to sound cool by using outdated slang.
- The Web Always Existed: If you've brought a computer with you to the past, you can somehow access the Internet in a time where it doesn't yet exist.
- Weird Historical War
- Writer Behind the Times
- X Called; They Want Their Y Back: A form of insulting someone's wardrobe where you joke that the article of clothing was taken from a person or group that the article of clothing would suit more. A common version is to claim that a specific time period wants the article of clothing back to insinuate that the person's taste in fashion is outdated.