moment

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈməʊ.mənt/, US /ˈmoʊ.mənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English moment, borrowed from Old French moment (“moment, minute; importance, weight”),^[2][3][4] or directly from Latin mōmentum (“movement, moving power; importance; moment of time, particle”),^[2][3][4] a contraction of *movimentum, from movēre (“to move”).^[2][3][5] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *meue- (“to push away”).^[2] Some explain the Latin sense “instant” from a particle just heavy enough to move the pointer of a scale,^[2][6] a view the OED does not share.^[2] It is a doublet of momentum,^[3][7] and related to move and movement.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A portion of time too brief to measure, an instant: 1340;^[9] Barnhart's first example is about 1380, in Chaucer's Boethius.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century a moment was also a small particle,^[10] and between 1398 and the 18th century it was sometimes used for a second.^[9][11] “Importance, weight”, as in of great moment, is from 1522^[11] or the 16th century.^[10] A motive or cause of action is from 1611 to 1736.^[11] The critical or decisive moment is from 1666,^[11] and the moment as the fitting time from 1781.^[9][11] In mechanics and mathematics the word took technical senses from 1706.^[11] Moment of truth, the final sword thrust of a bullfight, translates Spanish el momento de la verdad and is first recorded in Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon (1932).^[9][7] Momentary is from about 1460, in Lydgate.^[3]

Timeline

• 1340 – an instant.^[9]
• c. 1380 – in Chaucer's Boethius.^[3]
• 1398 – a second (obsolete).^[9]
• c. 1460 – momentary.^[3]
• 1522 – importance.^[11]
• 1666 – a critical moment.^[11]
• 1706 – in mechanics and calculus.^[11]
• 1781 – the fitting moment.^[9]
• 1932 – moment of truth (Hemingway).^[9][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A brief, indefinite interval of time.
2. A particular point in time, especially the present.
3. A period of importance in a series of events.
4. Importance or significance: a matter of great moment.
5. (physics) The tendency of a force to cause rotation about a point; the product of a quantity and its distance from a point.
6. (statistics) The expected value of a power of a variable.

Related words

• momentum
• momentous
• momentary
• move
• movement
• motion

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary distinguishes moment, a short but not insignificant time, from instant, a time almost too brief to detect, as well as from minute, second, jiffy and flash.^[12]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin