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The Tiffany Problem, or Tiffany Effect, refers to the issue where a historical or realistic fact seems
anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common typ ...
or unrealistic to modern audiences of
historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...
, despite being accurate. This often occurs with names, terms, or practices that, although historically accurate, feel out of place because of modern associations.


Origin of the term

Author Nicola Cornick first discussed the Tiffany Effect in 2018 after learning about the phenomenon and encountering the term. She explained that the name Tiffany derives from ''Theophania'', a name for girls in
medieval England England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Middle Ages, medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the Early modern Britain, early modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the co ...
and
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. The old French form c. 1200 was ''Tifinie'', and the spelling ''Tiffany'' first appears in English c. 1600. However, if a historical fiction writer were to name an English character Tiffany in an
Early Modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...
European setting as early as 1600, the audience would likely perceive it as inaccurate, associating the name with contemporary times or the 1980s in particular when the name reached peak popularity. Fellow author
Jo Walton Jo Walton (born 1964) is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel '' Among Others'', which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and '' Tooth and Claw'', a Victorian-era novel w ...
coined the term Tiffany Problem in 2019 to refer to this phenomenon.


Examples


Names

Like the name Tiffany, the following names have been mistakenly thought to be of modern origin but are actually historical: * Shane, which dates back to the 17th century as a masculine name derived from Gaelic * Beverly, which originated from the term "beaver meadow" and has historical usage * Wade, which is rooted in Early English and was popular in the medieval period * Nicola, which was historically used as a male name in Italy and was borne by notable figures like the 12th-century Nicola de la Haye


Others

The first known vending machine, created in the 1st century CE by
Hero of Alexandria Hero of Alexandria (; , , also known as Heron of Alexandria ; probably 1st or 2nd century AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in Alexandria in Egypt during the Roman era. He has been described as the greatest experimental ...
, dispensed holy water. This invention predates the modern concept of vending machines by nearly 2,000 years, making it seem anachronistic in ancient history. European royalty would have worn silk long before sericulture was brought from China in 552 CE, when two monks, charged by Emperor Justinian, successfully smuggled silkworm larvae from China back to Byzantium, which broke the Chinese monopoly on silk outside of Eastern Asia. The
Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
connected China with Europe as early as the first century BCE, making silk garments and textiles a fixture of the elite for many hundreds of years. In ancient Rome, gladiators were not only brutal fighters but also celebrities whose popularity extended beyond the arena and who were often featured in billboards and advertisements engaging in product endorsements for various goods and services, just like modern-day celebrities or influencers. Prominent fighters were depicted in frescos and mosaics, sometimes promoting specific brands of olive oil or weaponry. When developing the script for Gladiator (2000), the filmmakers initially considered including scenes where gladiators engaged in product endorsements, reflecting this historical reality. However, they ultimately decided against it, fearing that audiences would perceive it as anachronistic rather than historically accurate. The oldest recognizably modern postal service (using riders and coaches) can be traced back to the first century in Rome (
cursus publicus The ''cursus publicus'' (Latin language, Latin: "the public way"; , ''dēmósios drómos'') was the state mandated and supervised courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire, the use of which continued into the Eastern Roman Empi ...
), and these systems existed at least until the 6th century with some breaks in the 3rd century, continuing in some parts of Europe, on and off, until the 18th century (
Kaiserliche Reichspost ''Kaiserliche Reichspost'' (, ''Imperial Mail''), originally named ''Niederländische Postkurs'' (Low Countries' postal route), was the name of the international Mail, postal service of the Holy Roman Empire, founded in 1490. Often considered th ...
). The Inca Empire also had an extensive postal system, which was facilitated by more than of roads. A system of runners could allegedly deliver messages from one end of the empire to the other in under a week, covering a distance of nearly .


See also

*
Anachronism An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...
*
Historical authenticity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denot ...
*
Suspension of disbelief Suspension of disbelief is the avoidance—often described as willing—of critical thinking and logic in understanding something that is unreal or impossible in reality, such as something in a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe i ...
*
Verisimilitude In philosophy, verisimilitude (or truthlikeness) is the notion that some propositions are closer to being true than other propositions. The problem of verisimilitude is the problem of articulating what it takes for one false theory to be close ...


References


Further reading

* 2010s neologisms Historical fiction Historiography Medieval studies Names Narratology {{hist-stub