modernity

Etymology

It is formed from English modern + -ity,^[2][3] probably after Medieval Latin modernitās, which the OED finds from the 12th century in British and continental sources;^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster take the word directly from the medieval Latin noun.^[4][5] This is formed from Late Latin modernus (“modern”),^[5][4] from Latin modo (“just now”), from modus (“manner, measure”).^[4] Similar nouns arose in other languages: Portuguese modernidade in the 17th century, French modernité in 1823 and Spanish modernidad in 1905.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality or condition of being modern: 1635, in the third edition of George Hakewill's Apologie, in the OED's revised entry.^[2] The first edition of the OED gave 1627,^[6] Etymonline the 1620s,^[4] and Dictionary.com 1620–30.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense, something modern or a modern example of something, is recorded from 1753, in a letter of Horace Walpole,^[2][7] though Etymonline dates it to 1733.^[4] In the 20th century the word took on a specialised sense in philosophy and the social sciences: from 1931, in the Journal of Philosophy, modernity named an outlook that departs from or rejects traditional ideas, doctrines and cultural values.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives modernism as an equivalent.^[5]

Timeline

• 1635 – the quality of being modern.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.^[4]
• 1753 – something modern.^[2] Etymonline gives 1733.^[4]
• 1931 – an outlook that breaks with traditional ideas and values.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being modern: The new library surprised the town with its modernity.^[8][5][2]
2. An intellectual or social outlook that breaks with traditional ideas, beliefs and cultural values.^[2]
3. Something modern; a modern example of something.^[8][2][7]

Word family

• hypermodernity

Related words

• modern
• modernism
• modernist

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins