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modernity

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /məˈdɜːnɪti/[1]
  • US: /məˈdɝnɪti/[1]

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

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