This statement was written in a column: "The problem is that birth certificates as currently written reflect archaic notions of procreation..."

A reader responded saying that someone should alert the author that "archaic" is not a synonym for "quaint."

"Rather, according to my thesaurus, it is related to 'obsolete' or 'outmoded,' two words which may well describe the concept of the birth certificate that she so eloquently defends."

Now, forgetting about the political thrust of this disagreement, is the original author correct or is the response correct? Having just looked at dictionary.com, I believe the second person is correct. Or...can "archaic" mean "quaint?"

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Or...can "archaic" mean "quaint?"

No

Ancient, outmoded, yes, but it doesn't follow that the notions are quaint.

Honestly, I would think the term "archaic" was used to describe a man, having intercourse with a woman, and thus creating a child. With various technologies like in vitro fertilization, test tube babies, etc., the notion of mother and father are streched quite a bit.

I don't have the context of this quote, which I believe would help somewhat. Can you post a link to the article? Either way, archaic is not the correct word, I would prefer "outdated", which does not connotate procreation in the Middle Ages, as "archaic" does.

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"The problem is that birth certificates as currently written reflect archaic notions of procreation..."

Archie Bunker was a strong proponent of this kind of procreation. He and his wife Edith begot Gloria in the old-fashioned way very shortly after consuming the last piece of their wedding cake, proving, as Archie said to his son-in-law, "Yasee, Meathead, we CAN have archaic and Edith too!"

HEHEHEHEHE - good one, Asa.

We use a clip from that show in our "diversity training". It's from the one where Meathead and Gloria take Edith and Archie out to eat at a Chinese restaurant (or something like that) and Archie goes on and on about all the different ethnic groups, using all the most offensive epithets you could say on television at the time.

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Archie goes on and on about all the different ethnic groups, using all the most offensive epithets you could say on television at the time.

I suppose every ethnic group has a pejorative name given it by another group. During the great Irish influx in the USA, newspaper cartoons depicted them as monkeys. Hmmmmm, maybe that explains half my behaviour, but what about the English half?