English

retrofuture

From retro- + future.

Latin retrō ‘back, backwards, behind’

Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- ‘to become’

Latin sum ‘to be’

Latin futūrus ‘about to be’

Old French futur

Middle English future ‘a future action or doing’

Today it means

noun An outdated vision of the future.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / retrofuture