contemporarius
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Pronunciation
Forms
contemporārius (feminine contemporāria, neuter contemporārium); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin con- + temporārius (“of time”).[2] Wiktionary instead derives it directly from tempus (“time”) with the suffix -ārius.[1]
Earliest recorded meaning
Köbler dates it to about 1450, from Latham's word-list.[3] The chronicle of Adam Usk, in its account of 1399, calls a brother, Thomas Prestbury, the writer's contemporary at Oxford.[4]
Semantic evolution
It is a Medieval Latin word, used as a noun, “a contemporary”,[4][3] and as an adjective.[1] It is the source of English contemporary, first recorded in the 1630s,[2] and of German kontemporär.[1]
Timeline
- c. 1450 – Köbler dates its first record to about this time.[3]
- 1630s – English borrows it as contemporary.[2]
Meanings
Adjective
- (Medieval Latin) Contemporary.[1]
Noun
Usage notes
The older words were contemporalis and contemporaneus.[5][3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
- ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften