Etymologically
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contemporaneus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔn.tɛm.pɔˈraː.ne.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon.tem.poˈraː.ne.us][1]

Forms

contemporāneus (feminine contemporānea, neuter contemporāneum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + tempus (“time”) + -āneus.[1][2][3] Etymonline sees in its form the influence of Late Latin temporāneus (“timely”).[4] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only ancient record is the heading of a chapter of Gellius (19.14),[2][6] around AD 165,[7] which says that Marcus Varro and Publius Nigidius were contemporaries of Caesar and Cicero.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin the usual word for “contemporary” was contemporalis, which the TLL equates with it.[2] It became common in Medieval Latin, as an adjective “living at the same time” and as a noun for a contemporary or an age-mate;[8][7] the MLW also records the sense “lasting equally long”.[8]

It was taken into French (contemporain), Spanish (contemporáneo), Portuguese, Romanian and Italian (contemporaneo),[1][9] and into English as contemporaneous in the 1650s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 165 AD – A chapter heading of Gellius calls Varro and Nigidius contemporaries of Caesar and Cicero.[2][6][7]
  • 1040–1046 – Wipo lists dukes contemporary with the men he has named.[8][7]
  • 11th century – The Turba philosophorum uses it as a noun.[7]
  • 1650s – English borrows it as contemporaneous.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Contemporary, living or existing at the same time, with the dative.[6][3][10][1]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Lasting equally long.[8]

Noun

  1. A contemporary.[6][3][8]
  2. (Medieval Latin) An age-mate.[8][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.