contemporary

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /kənˈtem.pər.ər.i/, US /kənˈtem.pə.rer.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin contemporārius,^[2][3][4] formed from con- “together” and temporārius “of time”,^[2][5] from tempus “time”,^[2][5] after Latin contemporāneus and Late Latin contemporālis.^[3][4] It is related to temporary and contemporaneous.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Living or happening at the same time, with “with”: 1631 in the OED, Barnhart and MWU, the 1630s in Etymonline.^[6][5][7][2]

Semantic evolution

From the mid-17th century until after the 1750s the form cotemporary largely replaced contemporary, which became usual again in the later 18th century.^[5][2] The noun, a person living at the same time, is from before 1635, first as cotemporary.^[5][2] English had earlier used contemporanie (early 15th century) and the native time-fellow (1570s).^[2] Equal in age is from before 1667.^[6] The meaning “modern, of the present time”, of art and literature, is from 1805 in Etymonline and 1866 in the OED,^[2][6] and in the 1950s it was a fashionable word for up-to-date design.^[6]

Timeline

• 1631 – of the same time.^[6][5]
• 1635 – noun, a person of the same time (as cotemporary).^[5]
• 1662 – the form cotemporary.^[6]
• 1805 – modern, of the present.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Belonging to the present time; modern.
2. Living or happening at the same time as something else.
3. Of about the same age.

Noun

1. A person who lived at the same time as another, or who is about the same age.

Word family

• contemporarily
• contemporariness
• contemporize
• noncontemporary
• ultracontemporary
• uncontemporary

Related words

• temporary
• contemporaneous
• temporal
• tempo

Usage notes

The AHD warns that used of the past, contemporary can be unclear: contemporary critics of Shakespeare may be critics of his time or of ours.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin