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contemporary, a. and n.|kənˈtɛmpərərɪ|
Also β. 7–9 co-temporary, cotemporary.
[ad. L. type *contemporāri-us, f. con- together + tempus, tempor- time, temporārius of or belonging to time; the actual formations in L. were contemporālis and contemporāneus (see above).
Contemporary is the original form, and that approved by Latin analogies; cf. the preceding and following words. But the variant co-temporary was used by some in the 17th c., and though characterized by Bentley as ‘a downright barbarism’, it became so prevalent after c 1725, as almost to expel contemporary from use. Towards the end of the 18th c., the latter rapidly recovered its ground, and cotemporary is now used by comparatively few. It has been defended on the ground that it is a purely English formation, like co-divine, co-glorious (see co- 2); but this is a mere fancy generated by mechanically dividing the word, without regard either to its history or to its meaning. Historically, contemporary is a substitute for contemporal and contemporane (either of which might well have been retained instead); in signification, co-temporary would analogically mean ‘unitedly, conjointly, or equally temporary’, whereas contemporary has no affinity with the English sense of ‘temporary’, and no connexion with that word except that both are derivatives of L. tempus and its adj. temporārius.]
A. adj.
1. a. Belonging to the same time, age, or period; living, existing, or occurring together in time.
1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. ii. §80 After King Oswald his Death, four Christian contemporary Kings flourished in England. 1711Addison Spect. No. 101 ⁋4 The Passions and Prejudices of a contemporary Author. 1828D'Israeli Chas. I, I. Pref. 7 Immense archives of contemporary documents. 1844Ruskin Mod. Paint. (ed. 2) I. Pref. 14 He..who would maintain the cause of contemporary excellence against that of elder time. 1874Green Short Hist. vii. §7. 416 There are allusions in plenty to contemporary events.
b. Const. with.
1631Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 226 An Author contemporarie with this Archbishop. 1642Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 23 Commines, who was contemporary with Machiavil. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. Rom. ii. 16 Either contemporary with that or prior to it. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 1 Writers contemporary with the events they write of.
†c. Const. to, unto. Obs.
a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 179 Cumæa was contemporary to the warre of Troy. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. v. xii. 251 Galen who was contemporary unto Plutarch. 1728Newton Chronol. Amended 39 Clisthenes, Alcmæon and Eurolicus..were contemporary to Phidon. 1750Warburton Julian i. iii, He was not only contemporary to the fact, but, etc.
(β) cotemporary.
1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. v. §8 Sesac King of ægypt, co-temporary with Rhehoboam. 1698Boyle Bentley's Dissert. Exam. 167 Allowing then that Solon and Thespis were Cotemporary. [1699Bentley Phal. Pref. 86, I would rather use..these [words] than that single word of the Examiner's Cotemporary, which is a downright Barbarism. ]1736Butler Anal. ii. vii. (1874) 252 Events cotemporary with the miracles..or subsequent to them. 1759Robertson Hist. Scot. (1817) I. 384 Cotemporary writers. 1762Gentl. Mag. 102 We often meet with the word cotemporary..The word should always be spelled contemporary. a1789Burney Hist. Mus. (ed. 2) II. i. 8 note, Prudentius a Christian poet, cotemporary with Theodosius. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 534, I prefer contemporary to co-temporary. 1828Webster, Contemporary..For the sake of easier pronunciation and a more agreeable sound, the word is often changed to cotemporary..the preferable word. 1861Max Müller Sc. Lang. Ser. i. (1864) 138 Supported by cotemporary scholars.
2. Having existed or lived from the same date, equal in age, coeval.
a1667Cowley Claudian's Old Man of V. 22 A neighbouring Wood born with himself he sees, And loves his old contemporary Trees. 1673[R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 42 Making Light contemporary with it's Creator. 1794Sullivan View Nat. I. 315 The water is as ancient as the earth, and contemporary with it.
β1879M. Pattison Milton 3 John Milton was born, 9th Dec., 1608, being thus exactly cotemporary with Lord Clarendon.
3. Occurring at the same moment of time, or during the same period; occupying the same definite period; contemporaneous, simultaneous.
1656tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 149 All the parts of them [i.e. lines] which are contemporary, that is, which are described in the same time. 1665–6Phil. Trans. I. 271 Not that by the Moons motion about its Axis the Earth should be carried by a contemporary Period. 1806Hutton Course Math. II. 290 Contemporary Fluents, or Contemporary Fluxions, are such as flow together, or for the same time.
β1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxxi. 279 The number of cotemporary turns of a wheel and pinion are reciprocally proportional to their number of teeth. 1799Vince Elem. Astron. xv. (1810) 125 The cotemporary variations of these angles.
4. a. Modern; of or characteristic of the present period; esp. up-to-date, ultra-modern; spec. designating art of a markedly avant-garde quality, or furniture, building, decoration, etc., having modern characteristics (opp. period n. 15).
1866(title) The Contemporary Review. 1924C. Gray (title) A survey of contemporary music. 1925A. Huxley Barren Leaves i. i. 4 A frock that was at once old-fashioned and tremendously contemporary. 1930London Mercury XXII. 424 These great poetical prizes tend..to become the perquisites of conservative-minded and imperfectly contemporary writers. 1934B.B.C. Year-Bk. 220 Nor can one imagine a devotee of variety or vaudeville finding any good points in a ‘contemporary’ or chamber music recital. 1935S. Lewis It can't happen Here xiii. 129 The ‘contemporary furniture’ of the 1930s. 1949Archit. Rev. CVI. 315 Flats which, especially in London,..are the form in which contemporary design is making the strongest impact on the urban scene. 1954Wyndham Lewis Demon of Progress i. i. 15 To be musically ‘contemporary’ in England is to be something like Benjamin Britten; unless you wish to ignore entirely the majority trend. Ibid. iii. xviii. 66 What in your view is the most contemporary kind of painting in England at the present moment. 1957C. MacInnes City of Spades 213 A building..redecorated in a ‘contemporary’ style—light salmon wood, cubistic lanterns, leather cushions of pastel shades. 1958Times 23 July 6/6 The council have ‘noted with some concern the emergence in certain industries of exaggerated styles and mannerisms that have come to be known as contemporary’. 1959D. Cooke Lang. Music ii. 55 The contemporary avant-garde composers..all concur in the principle of equating the major triad with pleasure.
b. absol.
1954Wyndham Lewis Demon of Progress iii. xviii. 67 The ‘contemporary’ is a cultural élite...So the ‘contemporary’ has nothing to do with time, nor with age. 1956‘R. Crompton’ Matty & Dearingroydes i. 12 The little sitting-room..with its ‘subtle blending of the contemporary and the period’. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xxx. 190 It was a ‘tasteful’ piece of contemporary; natural wood⁓finish doors, stainless steel windows and venetian blinds everywhere.
c. Comb., as contemporary-minded, contemporary-styled adjs.
1946Scott Goddard in Bacharach Brit. Music xvii. 216 The times had nothing to offer that would move a contemporary-minded musician to such depths. 1959H. Hobson Mission House Murder xvii. 111 An attractive, contemporary-styled bungalow.
B. n.
a. One who lives at the same time with another or others.
(In this sense Harrison, Descr. Britain, 1577, used ‘Synchroni or time fellows’.)
1646W. Price Mans Delinq. 9 Their spirits, contemporaries to S. Austine. 1670Walton Lives iv. 319 Their being contemporaries in Cambridge. 1700Dryden Fables Pref. (Globe) 494 From Chaucer I was led to think on Boccace, who was..his contemporary. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 145 ⁋11 More acquainted with his contemporaries than with past generations. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Uses Gt. Men Wks. (Bohn) I. 284 Men resemble their contemporaries, even more than their progenitors. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 3 The comic poet Alexis, a younger contemporary of Plato.
βa1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (1641) 28 My Lord of Leicester and Burleigh, both his Cotemporaries [ed. 1653, Con-] and Familiars. 1657P. Heylin Eccl. Vind. i. iv. 168 Now Bel and Serug were Cotemporaries. 1667Sprat Hist. R. Soc. 81 (T.) Our cotemporaries, who only follow rude and untaught nature. 1678R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 418 He and I were Cotemporaries. 1728Morgan Algiers II. iii. 247 One of his own Country Princes, and his Cotemporary. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 167 ⁋8 The hopes and fears of our cotemporaries. 1846Mill Logic iii. xiii. §7 As novel as the law of gravitation appeared to the cotemporaries of Newton. 1879M. Pattison Milton 1 A cotemporary of Milton, John Aubrey.
b. Used by a journal or periodical in referring to others published at the same time.
[1837Dickens Pickw. li. 548 Does our fiendish contemporary wince?] 1869Spectator 25 Dec. 1517 We quote from our contemporary the Vatican the following remarkable statement.
c. A person of the same age as another.
1742Gray Let. in Poems (1775) 152, I shall see Mr. ** and his Wife, nay, and his Child too..Is it not odd to consider one's Contemporaries in the grave light of Husband and Father? 1880L. B. Walford Troublesome Dau. I. ix. 179 Even Alice and Kate must not look upon him quite as though he were a contemporary. |