modern

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈmɒd.ən/, US /ˈmɑː.dɚn/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French moderne and directly borrowed from Late Latin modernus,^[2][3][4] a word used by Priscian and Cassiodorus,^[2] probably modelled on hodiernus (“of today”),^[3] from Latin modo (“just now; in a certain manner”),^[2][4] the ablative of modus (“manner, measure”),^[2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).^[2][4] Latin modus is the source of mode.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Now existing, extant”: 1500–20, in Dunbar's Poems,^[3][6] or about 1500.^[2]

Semantic evolution

“Of or relating to present and recent times” is from 1585,^[6][7][3] and the noun, a person of modern times as opposed to the ancients, also from 1585.^[3][7] In Shakespeare it often meant “everyday, ordinary, commonplace”.^[2] Of languages, the current form of Greek and others, it is from the 1690s,^[2] and modern languages as a field of study from 1821.^[2][6] “Up to date, not antiquated” is by 1808,^[2] and the noun “one who is up to date” from 1897.^[2] Modernism is from 1737, in Swift's letters,^[3] and modern-day from 1872.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary notes that modern is always moving on to the next modern thing, and that even postmodern, first recorded in 1949, will one day seem old-fashioned.^[4]

Timeline

• 1500–20 – now existing.^[3][6]
• 1585 – of present times; noun, a modern.^[6][3]
• 1690s – of a language's current form.^[2]
• 1737 – modernism.^[3]
• 1808 – up to date.^[2]
• 1821 – modern languages.^[2][6]
• 1949 – postmodern.^[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Relating to recent times or the present; contemporary.
2. Up to date; using the latest techniques or styles.
3. Relating to a recent style in art, such as modernism; avant-garde.
4. Of a language, in its present form, as opposed to Old or Middle.

Noun

1. A person of modern times or with modern ideas.

Word family

• modernly
• modernness
• modernity
• modernistic
• pseudomodern
• supermodern
• antimodern
• modernize

Related words

• moderne
• mode
• modernism
• modest
• moderate
• postmodern

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 j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster