modernité

Forms

modernité f (plural modernités)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French moderne + -ité.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary treats it instead as a learned borrowing of Medieval Latin modernitās, which it matches by surface analysis.^[1] moderne is from Late Latin modernus (“recent, current”), from the adverb modo (“just now, recently”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Balzac first uses it in 1823, for what is modern in literature and art.^[7][3][5] The TLFi's first record is later: Chateaubriand's Mémoires (1848), for the quality of being modern.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word carried the aesthetic cult of the modern that runs from Baudelaire's essay on the painter of modern life to Walter Benjamin.^[7] The TLFi dates its use in the fine arts to Baudelaire in 1863,^[2] the GLLF to about 1860.^[5] Bloch and Wartburg date the word to 1855,^[6] and Littré still marked it as a neologism in 1873.^[8]

Its later rival modernisme (about 1879) first carried a critical idea of a mania for the new and has been used as a synonym of modernité since 1931.^[7]

Timeline

• 1823 – Balzac uses modernité of modern literature and art.^[7][3]
• 1848 – Chateaubriand uses it for the character of what is modern.^[2]
• 1863 – Baudelaire applies it to the fine arts.^[2]
• 1873 – Littré lists it as a neologism.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being modern, modernity.^[4][2]
2. (arts) What is modern in art and literature, the modern manner or style.^[5][2]
3. A synonym of modernisme.^[9][7]

Related words

• moderne
• modernisme
• moderniser
• moderniste

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)