momentary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English momentare,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin mōmentārius (“of brief duration, temporary, short-lived”),^[5][2][6][7] which the OED treats as classical Latin and Etymonline as Late Latin.^[5][3] The Latin adjective is formed from mōmentum (“a moment”) and the suffix -ārius,^[5][7] the source of moment;^[5][6] mōmentum is a contraction of *movimentum, from moveō (“to move”).^[3] The OED compares the slightly earlier English adjective momentany.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lasting only a moment, transitory: about 1485, in a manuscript of Lydgate's Serpent of Division (composed 1422).^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1425–75,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford to late Middle English.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The main sense has not changed since the 15th century.^[5][8] In literary use from 1587, in Greene, it was also applied to living beings that live only briefly, a sense that lasted until 1873.^[5][8] Several short-lived senses followed: ready at the moment (in Pope's Odyssey, 1725), recurring at every moment (1755 to 1869), and instant or immediate (1799 to 1847), all now obsolete.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as lasting for a moment, or done in a moment, and quoted Milton's momentany for the same idea.^[9] The adverb momentarily, recorded from 1655, later took the chiefly North American sense "in a moment, soon" (1869).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1485 – lasting only a moment, transitory.^[5]
• 1587 – of a living being, short-lived (obsolete after 1873).^[5]
• 1725 – ready at the moment (obsolete).^[5]
• 1755 – recurring at every moment (obsolete after 1869).^[5]
• 1799 – instant, immediate (obsolete after 1847).^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lasting only a moment; brief or fleeting: a momentary flicker of doubt.^[10][7][5]
2. (obsolete, 1587–1873) Of a living thing, short-lived; ephemeral.^[5][7][8]

Word family

• momentariness
• intermomentary
• nonmomentary
• momentarily

Related words

• moment
• momentum
• momentous
• momentany
• move

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins