Learn English – Word for someone who can’t keep up with the times

nounssingle-word-requests

Is there a word that means roughly 'someone who refuses to accept change and insists that things should be done in the old established way'? I'm looking for something like behind the times or has trouble understanding the flow, but preferably a single word – or stick-in-the-mud, which won't really do since I'm writing in a formal and slightly archaic style.

Best Answer

Reactionary: someone who opposes political or social progress or reform. Highly conservative and favours a return to an earlier, more disciplined, social order.

[Sources]: Oxford Dictionaries; Wiki

Diehard (variant spellings): first used on the battlefield in the mid C19th, then to describe Conservative politicians who were clinging to British imperial power in the 1930s. Now refers to someone who is staunchly opposed to change, even when there are good reasons for it.

[Sources]: Oxford Dictionaries; Wiki; The Diehards

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