historical-accuracy

Run a four-layer audit covering linguistic etymology, material culture, social institutions, and historiographical perspective. Each flagged element is documented with the reason it is anachronistic and a period-accurate replacement.

Check the word's earliest recorded usage in the Oxford English Dictionary against your story's date. For example, "brainwash" was coined in 1950 and "paranoid" entered psychiatric use in the 1890s, so neither fits earlier settings.

The audit catches anachronistic idioms, wrong technologies like matchbooks before 1892, illegal social actions such as married women signing contracts under coverture, and modern moral values projected onto historical characters.

The method is period-agnostic and works for any era, from ancient Rome to the Space Race. It relies on primary sources like diaries, trial transcripts, and newspapers relevant to the chosen period rather than fixed era templates.

The audit flags likely anachronisms but cannot replace specialist historians for obscure regional or niche topics. Final verification of contested details should rely on cited primary sources such as contemporary letters and newspapers.