mod

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /mɒd/, US /mɑːd/^[1]

Etymology

It is a clipping of modern,^[2][3][4] or in Collins of modernist.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A member of a group of fashion-conscious British teenagers: 1960.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The mods of the 1960s affected extreme neatness and a liking for stylish clothes,^[2] and were usually contrasted with rockers.^[3][5] The adjective, very up to date and fashionable, is from 1960 in the OED, 1965 in Barnhart.^[6][2] A revival of the mods followed in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[5]

Timeline

• 1960 – a mod; mod (adjective).^[2][6]
• 1965 – mod, fashionable.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (British) A member of a group of clothes-conscious teenagers of the mid-1960s, or of their revival in the late 1970s, opposed to the rockers.
2. A fashionably modern style of dress that began in England in the 1960s.

Adjective

1. Fashionably up to date, especially in style or dress.

Word family

• modder
• mod con

Related words

• modern
• rocker

Usage notes

Several other words are spelled mod: a clipping of modification (about 1920, first among aviators);^[3][6] an abbreviation of modulo in mathematics (1854);^[6] and the Mòd, the yearly Highland Gaelic festival of music and literature (1893), from Scottish Gaelic, ultimately from Old Norse (compare moot and meet).^[6][4][5]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
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