modernadj.n.

Brit.

/ˈmɒdn/, U.S.

/ˈmɑdərn/

Forms: 1500s–1700s moderne, 1500s– modern.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French moderne; Latin modernus.

Etymology: < (i) Middle French, French moderne, noun (14th cent. denoting a person of the present time as opposed to antiquity, 1756 denoting a person with modern tastes, 1694 denoting a work of modern architecture) and adjective (1455 in sense ‘of the present time’, 16th cent. designating the current form of a language, 1680 in architecture moderne ), and its etymon (ii) post-classical Latin modernus of the present time (5th cent.; from c1125 in British sources designating a person currently holding office), also as noun denoting people (early 6th cent.) or things (5th cent.) < classical Latin modo just now (use as adverb of ablative of modus mode n.) + -ernus (in classical Latin hodiernus hodiern adj.).Compare Italian moderno (1308 as noun, 1319 as adjective), Spanish moderno (1433), Portuguese moderno (1572); compare also Dutch modern (early 17th cent.), Swedish modern (1668), German modern (early 18th cent.), Danish moderne (1767 as †modern), all probably < French.

A. adj.

†1. Being in existence at this time; current, present. Frequently applied (sometimes as postmodifier) to the current holder or incumbent of an office or position, esp. a reigning monarch. Obsolete.Quot. c1485 perhaps belongs to sense A. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [adjective]

present1340

nowa1393

presentary?a1425

unrun1474

modernc1485

hodiern?a1513

actual1525

modernal1542

instantc1550

this1582

immediate1605

current1608

nowadays1609

nowaday1632

hodiernal1656

living1659

running1659

daily1663

existent1676

existing1827

present-day1833

presential1878

today1908

c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Law of Armys (2005) 250 Gif a man proponis [etc.]..he suld suere..yat jt is sa suthely, be alde doctouris. Bot be the opynioun of the doctouris oure maisteris modernis..he suld say he traistis fermly jt be sa.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 83 Hodiern, modern, sempitern, Angelicall regyne.

1555 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 285 The next parliament, to be haldin..in name of our maist gracious quene moderne.

1597 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Glasgow (1876) 185 Hew, erle of Eglingtoune moderne.

1617 in Misc. New Spalding Club (1890) I. 117 Servandis to our most gratious moderne soverane lord James.

1700 in Pennsylvania Arch. (1852) I. 127 Being obliged to it by thy former as well as modern kindness.

1752 Charter Soc. Antiq. London 7 Wee have nominated..Martin Folkes, Esquire, to be the first and modern President of the said Society.

a. Of or relating to the present and recent times, as opposed to the remote past; of, relating to, or originating in the current age or period.Often contrasted with ancient and hence in historical contexts taken as applying either to the entire period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, or (when medieval began to be used to signify a distinct period) to the time subsequent to the Middle Ages.modern history: see history n. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [adjective] > modern

modern1585

new-schoolish1844

New World1847

latter day1850

contemporary1859

unantiquated1859

todayish1864

contemporaneous1871

modernistic1878

presentist1878

up to date1888

down to date1893

up-with-the-times1893

de nos jours1909

up to the minute1909

chromium-plate1924

chromium-plated1924

contempo1944

now1955

New Wave1960

nouveau1974

1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. xv. 16 b The writings of the auncient and moderne Geographers and Historiographers.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. ii. 54 [It] is a dittie of it self, and no staffe, yet some moderne writers haue vsed it but very seldome.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso ii. xxviii. 269 The women of this modern age, had as much need of amendment, as had the men.

1676 J. Ray Corr. (1848) 122 Much also he hath..taken out of some modern writer it hath not been my hap to see.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 275 There is another Aqueduct somewhat older, yet still modern.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Pref. Our English Tongue..may be said to equal, if not surpass all other Modern Languages.

1713 A. Pope in Guardian 16 Mar. 1/2 The Authoress of a famous Modern Romance.

1757 J. H. Grose Voy. E.-Indies v. 74 These last are of moderner date.

1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. III. 222 Their country appears to have been situated..at a great distance from the modern Padua.

1774 W. Mitford Ess. Harmony Lang. 260 The most admired modern masters.

1810 E. D. Clarke Trav. Var. Countries: Pt. 1st xxv. 640 Perhaps we are not authorized in considering the modern Greeks as legitimate descendants of the Getæ.

1849 Art Jrnl. 11 69/3 Between this society and one begun some years ago for the encouragement of modern Art and native artists, there should be no rivalry.

1864 J. F. Kirk Hist. Charles the Bold (U.S. ed.) II. iv. i. 170 The close of the 15th century is universally recognized as..the starting-point..of Modern, in distinction from Mediæval, history.

1900 L. F. Baum Wonderful Wizard of Oz Introd. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder-tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

1948 D. Diringer Alphabet ii. v. 327 Many ancient and modern savants dare to connect the Albanians of the Balkans with the Caucasian Albanians.

1983 A. Bullock Ernest Bevin iii. 82 It is arguable that Ernest Bevin owed less to formal education than any Englishman to hold so high an office..in modern times.

b. Designating the form of a language that is currently used, or the form representing the most recent significant stage of development, as opposed to any earlier form. Cf. modern Latin n. and adj.In historical philology applied to the last of the three periods into which it is customary to divide the history of most living languages (as distinguished from Old and Middle). Cf. Modern English n. and adj.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > a language > [adjective] > living, dead, or archaic

forsakena1613

living1657

mort1659

modern1699

middle1830

archaic1832

relict1887

1699 M. Lister Journey to Paris (new ed.) 108 Another Book overwritten in a small Modern Greek Hand, about 150 years ago.

1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. xxx. 275 I asserted that the modern Greek was as different from that spoke and written by the ancients, as the English used now from the old Saxon spoke in the time of Hengist.

1834 J. R. Planché Hist. Brit. Costume 89 A garment called bliaut or bliaus... In this bliaus we may discover the modern French blouse, a tunic or smock-frock.

1841 G. Borrow Zincali I. ii. i. 235 The number of Persian, Sclavonian, and modern Greek words with which it [sc. the language of the ‘Gitános of Estremadura’] is chequered.

1869 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. I. i. iii. §4. 194 The mincer..raises the middle part [of the tongue] and produces (lj) which degenerates into (i), as in Modern French.

1927 S. Jónsson Primer Mod. Icelandic p. v The first suggestion that I should write a text book of modern Icelandic was made to me in 1917.

1954 A. Koestler Invisible Writing iv. 54 I had acquired it [sc. Russian]..by the same pressure-cooker method by which I had learnt modern Hebrew.

1971 N. Fisher Rise at Dawn x. 169 He was in Corfu and he speaks good modern Greek.

1992 Word 43 4 Modern Welsh is said to begin with the 14th-century poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym.

c. Designating a person or (less commonly) a place regarded as the contemporary equivalent of a historical counterpart. See also modern Babylon n. at Compounds 2.Particularly common in the 19th cent.

ΚΠ

1791 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 32/2 The gentleman whom he has insolently called Thersites, and the modern Zoilus.

1843 Nonconformist 3 745 No racketing of engines to turn his domain into a modern Babel.

1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. i. 41 ‘Miquelites’..are the modern ‘Hermandad’, the brotherhood which formed the old Spanish rural armed police.

1873 A. Trollope Eustace Diamonds I. xviii. 244 It wasn't for him to suggest what objections might rise to the brain of a modern Othello; but after some hesitation he said that he would be there.

1897 B. Stoker Dracula viii. 103 If I don't sleep at once, chloral, the modern Morpheus!

1992 Economist 22 Aug. 4/2 If market mechanisms were inherently efficient, Shenzen..would have emerged as a miniature Wall Street instead of a modern Dodge City.

d. Of, relating to, or designating a current or recent movement or trend in art, architecture, etc., characterized by a departure from or a repudiation of accepted or traditional styles and values. Frequently in modern art. Also: designating or relating to work produced by such a movement; = modernist adj. Cf. abstract adj. 6.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [adjective] > modern and post-modern

modern1820

contemporary1859

postmodern1916

society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > architecture > style of architecture > [adjective] > other styles

florida1706

massive1723

rounded1757

round-arched1782

castellar1789

baronial1807

rational1813

English colonial1817

massy1817

transitional1817

Scottish Baronial1829

rococo1830

flamboyant1832

Scotch Baronial1833

Churrigueresque1845

Russo-Byzantine1845

soaring1849

trenchant1849

vernacular1857

Scots Baronial1864

baroque1867

Perp.1867

rayonnant1873

Dutch colonial1876

Neo-Grec1878

rococoesque1885

Richardsonian1887

federal1894

organic1896

confectionery1897

European-style1907

postmodern1916

Lutyens1921

modern1927

moderne1928

functionalist1930

Williamsburg1931

Colonial Revival1934

packing case1935

Corbusian1936

lavatorial1936

pseudish1938

Adamesque1942

rationalist1952

Miesian1956

open-planned1958

Lutyensesque1961

façade1962

Odeon1964

high-tech1979

Populuxe1986

1820 H. Fuseli Lect. Painting II. iv. 6 The Phantasiae of the ancients, which modern art,..in what is called Fancy-Pictures, has..debased.

1895 E. C. Dowson et al. tr. R. Muther Hist. Mod. Painting I. 10 Because this distinction between the eclectic and the personal, the derived and the independent, has not yet been carried out with sufficient strictness..it has hitherto..been found so difficult to discover the distinctive style of modern art.

1927 C. Bell Landmarks 19th-Cent. Painting 5 Géricault and then Delacroix were the new influences in France; in England the innovator was Constable. From these points of departure you can trace the whole glorious history of modern art.

1927 R. H. Wilenski (title) The modern movement in art.

1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover xi. 174 Clifford collected very modern pictures, at very moderate prices.

1938 O. Lancaster Pillar to Post 74 When, shortly after the War, the Modern Movement..was first brought to public notice it led to a natural and healthy reaction against the excessive ornament..of the previous generation.

1958 S. W. Cheney Story Mod. Art (rev. ed.) p. v I have accepted here the broadest traditional usage of the term ‘modern art’ as covering the course of creative invention since 1800.

1972 P. M. Bardi Archit. xix. 117/1 The flight of refugees from the Nazis..scattered the pioneers of the Modern movement across western Europe and America.

1978 P. Griffiths Conc. Hist. Mod. Music i. 7 In the context of the arts, ‘modern’ implies more about aesthetics and technique than about chronology.

1992 Rev. Eng. Stud. 43 232 It can be said that with this work [sc. Heart of Darkness]..Conrad invented the modern novel.

e. Zoology, Geology, etc. Of or belonging to the present day or a comparatively recent period of history; being of the kind now extant or prevalent.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [adjective] > modern > belonging to the modern period

modern1822

mod1882

1822 W. Buckland in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 187 The modern hyæna..is an inhabitant exclusively of hot climates.

1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 114 If such species be termed modern, in comparison to races which preceded them, their remains, nevertheless, enter into submarine deposits many hundred miles in length.

1873 J. W. Dawson Story Earth & Man x. 248 The modern damans or conies.

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 542 In all modern flying birds..there is a fusion of about four terminal vertebrae to form the ploughshare-bone or pygostyle.

1950 D. P. Quiring Functional Anat. Vertebrates xiii. 509 The third lower molars of Gigantopithecus have a mass about six times larger than those of modern man.

1982 R. G. Barry & R. J. Chorley Atmosphere, Weather & Climate (ed. 4) viii. 325 ‘Modern’ climatic conditions only became established during post-glacial time.

1992 M. Schaffer-Fehre tr. S. Schaal & W. Ziegler Messel ii. 15 In their evolutionary development numerous orders of modern mammals hail back to the Eocene.

a. Characteristic of the present time, or the time of writing; not old-fashioned, antiquated, or obsolete; employing the most up-to-date ideas, techniques, or equipment.In early use chiefly with reference to warfare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the future or time to come > newness or novelty > [adjective] > new, novel, or not previously known

newOE

fresha1382

unhearda1382

new-founda1425

raw1448

newfanglec1450

newfangled?1531

new-fashioned1574

novile1586

modern1590

newelty1590

unheard1592

novellous1601

new-discovered1609

novelizing1625

nouvelle1650

new-type1887

edgy1976

1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 8 b Without composing them of diuers sorts of weapons, according to the moderne vse.

1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres Gloss. 251 Moderne warre, is the new order of warre vsed in our age.

1607 B. Jonson Volpone iii. iv. sig. G2^v He has so moderne, and facile a veine, Fitting the time, and catching the Court-eare.

1652 P. Heylyn Cosmographie i. sig. Q Embattelled according to the modern Art of Fortifications.

1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode i. i. 12 Bell. He thinks himself the Pattern of modern Gallantry. Dor. He is indeed the pattern of modern Foppery.

1747 Fortune's Tricks in Forty-six 12 When the Pretty Fellows about Town find themselves devoured by the real Fires of modern Love.

1775 W. Buchanan Inq. Anc. Sc. Surnames (1820) 28 The more modern method of genealogising.

1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. xiii. 147 There is one remarkably pretty sitting room up stairs..and with modern furniture it would be delightful.

1872 W. D. Howells Their Wedding Journey iii. 69 They conjectured..flavors of Tennyson and Browning in his verse, with a moderner tint from Morris.

1885 Academy 24 Jan. 53/1 Perhaps Gray is at his modernest in the ‘Ode on Vicissitude’,..if not most modern of all in that final quatrain of the Elegy.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 26 Jan. 3/2 Against such foes, men with the modernest artillery and highest explosives are utterly powerless.

1937 Amer. Home Apr. 66/2 (caption) An old-fashioned dining room (left) goes modern.

1988 S. Afr. Panorama Apr. 46/2 Both Pretoria and Johannesburg have a modern well-equipped clinic.

1998 World of Interiors Feb. 10 ‘They're spatially very modern’, he explains, ‘not at all revival’.

b. Of a person or (occasionally) something personified: up to date in behaviour, outlook, opinions, etc.; embracing innovation and new ideas; liberal-minded. Esp. in modern girl, modern woman.

ΚΠ

1701 D. Defoe True-born Englishman i. 24 But England, Modern to the last degree, Borrows or makes her own Nobility.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison V. xiii. 75 You..are not a modern woman; have neither wings to your shoulders, nor gad-fly in your cap: You love home.

1804 ‘E. de Acton’ Tale without Title I. 194 Our modern misses; who..look offendedly grave at those freedoms in conversation.

1859 E. C. Gaskell in Fraser's Mag. 59 246/1 What modern young woman, of average ability and education, who is not at least ‘a writer’ in some magazine, or..the author of a book?

1899 H. James Awkward Age xxii. 237 The modern girl, the product of our hard London facts.

1914 G. B. Shaw Fanny's Last Play Induct., in Misalliance 154 I am not, I hope, a modern man in any sense of the word.

1975 A. Osmond Saladin! v. iii. 222 In his company she felt relaxed..and what, alas, could that mean except that she was not, after all, a modern girl?

1993 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 Nov. 64/2 Commentators and critics, most of whom are Muslim as well as modern and secular, see no difficulty in belonging to the Islamic community that is so much a feature of contemporary Egypt.

†4. Everyday, ordinary, commonplace. Obsolete.Frequent in Shakespeare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [adjective] > usual or ordinary

commona1325

naturalc1390

ordinarc1400

ordinary?a1425

ilk-day's1488

naturely?c1510

famous1528

familiar1533

vulgar1553

workaday1554

modern1591

tralatitious1653

commonish1792

workday1808

everyday1813

bread and butter1822

normal1843

common-seeming1857

tralatician1893

wake-a-day1893

1591 T. Lodge Catharos f. 27 It..maketh him blinde and inconsiderate in matters aswell moderne, as necessarie to his saluation.

1602 B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii. sig. L4 Alas! That, were no moderne Consequence, To haue cothurnall Buskins frighted hence.

1612 B. Jonson Alchemist iv. i. sig. H3^v Why this is yet A kinde of moderne happinesse, to haue Dol common for a great Lady.

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iii. iv. 42 Then..would I..rowze from sleepe that fell Anatomy..Which scornes a moderne Inuocation!

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) ii. vii. 156 The Iustice..With eyes seuere, and beard of formall cut, Full of wise sawes, and moderne instances.

5. Heraldry. France modern n. the form of the arms of France adopted by Charles V of France in 1405 (see quot. 1969); opposed to France ancient n. at ancient adj. 8.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > [noun] > armorial bearings or coat of arms > royal arms of France > modern arms of France

France modern1889

1715 Ashmole's Hist. Inst. Order Garter 511 John Beaufort,..Quarterly France modern and England.

1869 J. E. Cussans Handbk. Heraldry (rev. ed.) xvii. 209 Henry the Fourth:..three Fleurs-de-lys were substituted for a Field semé, for the Arms of France. This alteration..constituted what is commonly known as France modern.

1889 P. O. Hutchinson in Notes & Gleanings (Exeter) 2 50/2 The French arms are represented as ‘France Modern’.

1969 J. Franklyn & J. Tanner Encycl. Dict. Heraldry 139/2 France Modern, ‘azure, three fleurs-de-lys Or’: arms adopted by the King of France, K. Ch. V, in 1405 to difference from the King of England's assumed French quarter: ‘azure, semé-de-lys Or’, i.e. France Ancient.

6. Typography. Designating any of a group of typefaces developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, distinguished by flat serifs and increased contrast between the thick and thin parts of the letters. Esp. in modern face.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > printing > types, blocks, or plates > relating to type > style of type > [adjective] > others

modern1764

script1782

Caxtonian1811

Porsonian1813

antique type?1817

Aldine1837

Scotch1847

old-face1859

Times1860

old-faced1863

Fell type1883

Fournier1902

monotype1910

Goudy1933

monoline1962

slab serif1970

monospaced1972

1764 Oxf. Sausage 28 Cruel as the Mandate Of mitred Priests, who Baskett late enjoined To throw aside the reverend Letters black And print Fast-Prayers in modern Type!

1819 R. Austin in A. F. Johnson Type Designs (1934) iii. 97 The modern or new fashioned faced printing-type at present in use was introduced by the French, about 20 years ago.

1894 Amer. Dict. Printing & Bookmaking 379/2 Modern faces, these are those kinds of Romans which have been cut since the beginning of the century.

1922 D. B. Updike Printing Types I. ii. 19 The much later form [of letter], exhibiting greater contrasts of thick and thin lines, constitutes a ‘modern face’ letter.

1934 A. F. Johnson Type Designs iii. 73 During the eighteenth century the design of our roman types underwent a radical change, resulting in the style which we know as modern face, the type of the nineteenth century and still the type used in our newspapers and most of our books.

1972 P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 210 By the second decade of the nineteenth century English printers were using modern face almost exclusively.

7. British Education. Designating a secondary school in which emphasis is placed on subjects other than the classical languages and literature; (also) designating these subjects. See also modern Greats n. at Compounds 2, secondary modern school at secondary adj. 5g.In some English public schools formerly applied (esp. in modern side) to a separately organized division of the school in which modern subjects form nearly the whole curriculum, Latin and Greek not being taught.

ΘΚΠ

society > education > learning > study > subject or object of study > [adjective] > modern

modern1862

1862 Rep. Publ. Schools Comm. (1864) IV. 281 There would be this danger;..that idle and incapable boys would wish to enter this modern school to get off Latin composition and Greek.

1881 F. E. Hulme Town, College, & Neighbourhood Marlborough 91 In the modern school the subjects of instruction are mathematics [etc.].

1884 Jrnl. Educ. Sept. 348/2 Modern sides have grown and flourished.

1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 7 Nov. 2/2 ‘Modern sides’ are either effective (as they all ought to be) or non-effective. If the former, there are scholarships in ‘modern subjects’ for them to win.

1914 ‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life i. 16 The Headmaster of the old school, who looks upon the classics as the foundation of all education, and regards modern sides as a sop to the parental Cerberus.

1944 Ann. Reg. 1943 62 Three main types of secondary schools—grammar, modern, and technical.

1975 Times 29 Aug. 10/4 When university entrance is considered there is a 47 per cent advantage of the combined grammar and modern schools over the comprehensives.

B. n. Chiefly in plural.

a. A person who lives in or belongs to the present time; a person who belongs to a modern period or epoch, as contrasted with an ancient one.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [noun] > one who belongs to the present

neoteric1583

modern1585

modernist1588

moderner1592

1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. ii. 2 b The Iles Baleares, so aunciently called: but by the modernes Maiorque and Minorque.

1601 R. Dolman tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. 288 And in this number is the whale, of which the ancients write, and whome some moderns call Gibbar.

1616 B. Jonson Epicœne iv. iv, in Wks. I. 574 Hee must haue Seneca read to him, and Plvtarch, and the Ancients; the Modernes are not for this disease.

1650 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (ed. 2) vi. xiv. 288 The..more Western term of Longitude, from whence the moderns begin their commensuration.

1668 J. Dryden Of Dramatick Poesie 25 He maintains the Moderns have acquir'd a new perfection in writing, I can onely grant they have alter'd the mode of it.

1717 M. Prior Alma i. 520 Some in ancient books delight; Others prefer what moderns write.

1784 European Mag. & London Rev. May 366/2 No modern has been heard to play an adagio with greater taste and feeling.

1812 T. Taylor Diss. Philos. Aristotle (title page) The insufficiency also of the Philosophy that has been substituted by the Moderns for that of Aristotle is demonstrated.

1840 Penny Cycl. XVII. 2/1 In point of touch [when playing an organ], and mechanism generally, the moderns are far superior to their predecessors.

1888 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 539 The old moderns, say Chaucer, Spenser and Le Sage.

1913 E. K. Chatterton Ships & Ways of Other Days xii. 265 We called attention some time back to those spritsails which seem so curious to us moderns.

1992 Independent 19 Oct. 14/3 Dr Stringer argues that this is evidence for a lengthy period of co-existence between Neanderthals and moderns in Europe.

b. Applied to things.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [noun] > modernity > something that is modern

modern1735

modernism1737

modernity1753

contemporary1962

1735 J. Price Some Considerations Stone-bridge Thames 14 Description of many fine Bridges..in Italy wherein the finest among the Moderns is the Farnesian.

1797 J. Farington Diary 15 July (1923) I. lx. 212 Old pictures only true models, they having been proved by time,—fashion may make moderns pass.

1991 Garden (Royal Hort. Soc.) Mar. 133/2 David Austin's plan was..to see if he could produce shrubs with the vigour and other good qualities of the Bourbons, including of course their old-style flowers, added to the..wider colour range of the moderns.

1994 Coin News May 38/2 I happened to show it to a dealer, expert in ancient coins, but whose knowledge of moderns was much like my own.

a. With the: that which is modern.

ΚΠ

1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 80 Some were allured by the modern, others reverenced the antient.

1798 M. Wollstonecraft On Poetry 168 In the works of the poets who fasten on their affections, they see grosser faults, and the very images which shock their taste in the modern.

1849 H. D. Thoreau Week Concord & Merrimack Rivers 161 History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern.

1905 Daily Chron. 21 Jan. 4/6 He rejoices in that inability to depict the modern which is the most convincing sign of the contemporary.

1991 D. Rieff Los Angeles ii. vi. 94 These were the devices that had permitted an America victorious in the World War to create a society that..seemed on the cutting edge of the modern.

†b. upon the modern: (probably) peculiar to modern times. Obsolete. rare.

ΚΠ

1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality II. ix. 135 I apprehend that this character is pretty much upon the modern. In all ancient or dead languages we have no term, any way adequate, whereby we may express it.

a. A person with modern tastes or opinions, or who belongs to the modern school of thought on any subject; a person who advocates or practises a departure from traditional styles or values in any sphere; = modernist n. 4.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [noun] > modernity > one who is modern in methods or opinions

modernist1864

new eraist1872

modern1888

presentist1923

modernus1953

1888 Mrs. H. Ward Robert Elsmere I. ii. xii. 346 She was playing Wagner, Brahms, and Rubinstein, interpreting all those passionate voices of the subtlest moderns.

1897 Mag. of Art 283 It will be deemed old-fashioned by the latest of moderns.

1905 J. Orr Probl. Old Test. xii. 453 (note) Most of the moderns deny the supernatural character of prophecy.

1928 Amer. Mercury Oct. 219/1 The woman, a hard-boiled modern of the sort frequenting hotel lobbies in search of free meals from suckers.

1978 E. Blishen Sorry, Dad iii. vii. 145 It was what, he would tell me, could be expected of ‘you moderns’. ‘No sense of grammar. No control. No discipline. Free verse. Aldous Huxley.’

1985 R. Harries Prayer & Pursuit of Happiness vii. 138 Being suspicious moderns we cannot help suspecting that talk about God's love is a compensation for a lack of human love.

1991 Antiquity 65 1005/1 It was only..under the influence of such people as Picasso and the early Moderns, that what previously had been regarded as ‘primitive’ was brought back into the mainstream of art connoisseurship.

b. A work of art, architecture, etc., which is the product of a modern trend or movement.

ΚΠ

1959 Daily Tel. 1 May 1/1 ‘Moderns’ which, two years ago, would have been grouped together in what some writers cuttingly described as the ‘kitchen sink’ or ‘horror’ galleries now hang boldly throughout the exhibition.

1975 Country Life 2 Jan. 37/2 In the visual arts the Walker Art Centre houses a world-famous collection of moderns.

4. Short for modern first edition n. at Compounds 2.

ΚΠ

1922 M. Sadleir Excurs. in Victorian Bibliogr. 7 The dapper expert in ingenious moderns with his prefaces, his cancel-titles, [etc.].

1975 Bibliognost Aug. 5 The chance that someone will find a simple first edition of a modern author is slim, because [John F.] Fleming's firsts are very special... Each would be priced well above the average cost of ‘moderns’.

5. Short for modern dance n. at Compounds 2. Also: a category of ballroom dance.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun]

modern dancing1912

modern dance1916

modern1933

1933 N.Y. Times 10 Dec. x. 4 (advt.) 16 one-hour lessons... Ballet..Ballroom..‘Modern’..Musical Comedy.

1979 Washington Post 24 Sept. b5/3 Later, when I started dancing again, I chose modern.

1994 Ballroom Dancing Times Feb. 185/2 Modern was the easiest to bring into the fold initially, because many of the dancers did both Old time and Modern.

2002 N.Y. Mag. 29 Apr. 32/1 A student of ballet since he was 6, and of modern since freshman year, Adam says it's in the dance studio at his school where he feels ‘I'm becoming more and more flamboyant every day’.

Compounds

C1.

a. With participial adjectives.

modern-bred adj.

ΚΠ

1808 H. More Cœlebs in Search of Wife I. i. 9 The mind of a true modern-bred lady.

1990 Re: the Tarot, etc. in alt.pagan (Usenet newsgroup) 11 May The symbols are at least as metaphorical as the traditional tarot, but much clearer to my modern-bred mind.

modern-built adj.

ΚΠ

1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure I. 168 Our antient sturdy barons..whose race is now so thoroughly refin'd and fritter'd away into the more delicate modern-built frame of our pap-nerv'd softlings.

1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility III. vi. 111 Cleveland was a spacious, modern-built house.

1905 Daily Chron. 28 Dec. 4/4 Most of these furnaces are modern built.

1999 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 24 Mar. 2 The development..consists of seven homes, modern-built in baronial fashion.

modern-cut adj.

ΚΠ

1808 C. Stower Printer's Gram. (heading) Specimens of modern-cut printing types, from the founderies of Messrs. Fry and Steele, and Messrs. Caslon and Catherwood.

1902 T. L. De Vinne Pract. Typogr.: Treat. Title-pages 234 Of modern-cut types we have many varieties.

1990 Sunday Express Mag. 25 Nov. 69/2 The cushion-cut diamonds are of a roughly oblong shape with considerably greater depth above and below the girdle than is found in modern-cut diamonds.

modern-faced adj.

ΚΠ

1874 G. Simpson in George Eliot Lett. (1956) VI. 44 Tinted paper ought never to be used with modern faced type. It suits ancient face only.

modern-looking adj.

ΚΠ

1819 L. Hunt in Examiner 31 Oct. 700/1 The whole of the piece [sc. Dryden's King Arthur] is strangely modern-looking and meretricious.

1992 New Scientist 14 Nov. 44/1 Most palaeontologists now believe that the first modern-looking Europeans..originated from a stock that did not leave Africa until about 100,000 years ago.

modern-made adj.

ΚΠ

1807 W. H. Ireland Stultifera Navis xliv. 193 There is, however, no rule without exception, as may be instanced in a famous vendor of modern made books.

1899 Daily News 27 Mar. 2/7 The allegation was that the punches had been forged and used upon modern-made silver-plate to represent antique goods.

2000 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 18 Mar. 13 Of modern-made Irish crystal, perhaps one of the best bets to rise in value are Waterford's special millennium glasses.

modern-minded adj.

ΚΠ

1846 Southern Q. Rev. 20 Oct. 330 Sober and modern-minded as we are, we cannot help fancying that we a see a sort of map of our travels upon the edges of the leaves [of our journal].

1907 Dublin Rev. July 191 The author is at times betrayed into making Neri almost impossibly modern-minded.

1994 Western Living Oct. 3/3 A fine example of early Shingle Style architecture reinvented with modern-minded genius.

† modern-painted adj. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1809 M. Berry Jrnl. 4 Nov. (1865) II. 402 The library of Trinity, a fine large room, with a hideous modern-painted window.

† modern-practised adj. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1756 A. Murphy Gray's-Inn Jrnl. II. No. 86. 195 Many of his Turns did not allude to modern-practised Life.

modern-sounding adj.

ΚΠ

1880 Littell's Living Age 18 Mar. 647/1 The strange and interesting phenomenon is to find, in such a modern-sounding publication [in China] as a government gazette and court circular.

1903 Daily Chron. 10 June 7/1 A piece with the more modern-sounding title of ‘The Court of Comfort’.

1992–3 Guitarist (BNC) This little machine packs a real punch, has a very commendable number and variety of sounds, and is a very modern-sounding drum box.

b. With nouns forming adjectives used attributively.

modern-day adj.

ΚΠ

1870 Q. Rev. 129 221 Even in domestic correspondence it makes all the difference to the interest of a modern-day letter that its thread may be dropped anywhere, to be resumed easily on the morrow.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 5 July 2/3 No one can fail to be impressed by the seriousness of modern-day cricket.

1990 Notes & Queries Dec. 517/1 Modern-day language formalists such as Katz have little time for Coleridge.

modern-dress adj.

ΚΠ

1885 J. K. Jerome On Stage 64 For ordinary modern-dress parts, we had to use our own things entirely.

1992 Financial Times 22 Feb. p. XVI/3 The film turns Henri Murger's Parisian stories..into a modern-dress spoof on artistic attitudinising.

modern-style adj.

ΚΠ

1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 V. lvii. 439 The narrative of the method of the deed has a certain old quaintness that may relieve it of the stiffness of the modern-style book.

1927 Melody Maker Aug. 781/2 The voice again is heard together with trumpet and saxophones alternating in a modern-style extemporisation.

1975 Guardian 20 Jan. 8/3 Modern-style choreography.

C2.

modern Babylon n. London.

ΚΠ

1835 J. M. Wilson Hist. Tales Borders I. 356/1 I proceeded to London... Months passed away, and I was still a wanderer upon the streets of the modern Babylon.

1850 C. Dickens David Copperfield xxxvi. 374 Bidding adieu to the modern Babylon.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvi. [Eumaeus] 582 The sights of the great metropolis, the spectacle of our modern Babylon.

modern convenience n. an amenity, appliance, fitting, etc., such as is usual in a well-equipped, modern home; frequently in plural; cf. mod con n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > advantage > convenience > [noun] > a convenience

ease1393

readiness1523

convenience1609

accommodation1612

conveniency1638

modern convenience1859

amenity1913

mod con1934

1825 R. Chambers Trad. Edinb. (1869) 226 The Lord Justice-clerk's house was provided with a pin or risp, instead of the more modern convenience—a knocker.]

1859 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 81 With every modern convenience and improvement: with bath-rooms..dish-lifts, [etc.]

1926 Times 6 May 1/6 (advt.) Superior accommodation in lady's quiet house..all modern conveniences.

1990 P. Auster Music of Chance v. 108 A fully equipped kitchen. A refrigerator, a stove, a sink, all the modern conveniences.

modern dance n. a free expressive style of dance developing in the early 20th cent. as a counter to classical ballet.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun]

modern dancing1912

modern dance1916

modern1933

1884 G. F. Pentecost (title) The Christian and the modern dance.]

1916 H. Munsterberg in T. A. Faulkner Lure of Dance xi. 89 The modern dance is erotic and sex-inciting.

1933 J. Martin Mod. Dance 3 By the modern dance we..imply by a method of negation those types of dancing which are neither classic nor romantic.

1957 G. B. L. Wilson Dict. Ballet 189 Modern Dance claims to make much use of ‘natural movements’ and it is also a reflexion of a state of mind.

1993–4 Dance Internat. Winter 40/1 She progressively streamlined traditional Bharata Natyam movements, slowly introducing steps from the modern dance vocabulary which she then wove into her evolving structure.

modern dancer n. an exponent of modern dance.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun] > dancer

modern dancer1968

1968 J. Winearls Mod. Dance (ed. 2) 9 Modern Dancers consider that Ballet cannot deal satisfactorily with all possible dance-subjects.

modern dancing n. now rare = modern dance n.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun]

modern dancing1912

modern dance1916

modern1933

1912 E. L. Urlin Dancing Anc. & Mod. p. xv Modern dancing begins where..the art survives solely on account of the pleasure it gives to the performer, or to the spectator.

1933 J. Martin Mod. Dance 2 There are as many methods and systems of modern dancing as there are dancers.

modern dress n. contemporary clothing; spec. costumes for a theatrical production in a style from the period of performance rather than that of a play's setting or time of writing.

ΚΠ

1688 W. Canning Gesta Grayorum Ep. Ded. The Language it self is all that Age could afford; which, allowing something for the Modern Dress and Words in Fashion, is not beneath any we have now.

1706 D. Defoe Caledonia i. 20 And when the Characters we shall compare, A Northern Highland-man's a Christian there. Polite his Manners, and his Modern Dress, Is Beauty all, when match't with Ugliness.

1854 Chambers's Jrnl. 1 124 She looked like a Greek statue that had come alive, and by mere contact classicised its modern dress.

1899 Times 29 Nov. 6/2 Aynsworth and Sneer as Dangle and Kerr appeared in modern dress, which was somewhat unusual.

1979 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ont.) 31 Mar. 6/2 It is mainly for this reason that Ayatollah Khumaini has called upon Iranian women to trade their modern dress for the Burka.

2001 Guardian 22 Oct. i. 16/1 One of the most appealing qualities of Rennie Harris's hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet is that it has none of the self-conscious hipness of Shakespeare performed in modern dress.

modern first n. short for modern first edition n.

ΚΠ

1924 G. McLeish's Catal. 13 Essential to the collection of ‘modern firsts’.

1994 Bk. & Mag. Collector June 38/2 Perhaps the highlight for collectors of modern firsts is a virtually mint copy of Graham Greene's debut novel, The Man Within.

modern first edition n. (in bookselling) the first edition of any book published after about 1900.

ΚΠ

1927 Amer. Mercury Feb. p. xviii (advt.) Highest price paid for modern first editions, art books, architecture, fine bindings, limited editions, facetiae.

1968 Bertram Rota Ltd. Catal. No. 158 (verso front cover) We are always pleased to receive offers of modern first editions and private press books in fine state.

modern Greats n. (at Oxford University) the school of philosophy, politics, and economics.

ΚΠ

1909 Wanted! New School at Oxf. 4 It is a plan for, as it were, a modern-side Greats, based on Philosophy, but also..containing an admixture of certain other subjects.]

1925 Times 15 July 19/3 The examiners in the Final Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘Modern Greats’) issued the following class list.

1935 N. Mitchison We have been Warned ii. 146 He was..thinking what a rotten school Modern Greats was.

1971 D. Scott A. D. Lindsay iii. 50 A new School of Politics, Philosophy and Economics—‘Modern Greats’.

modern jazz n. jazz as developed in the 1940s and 1950s; esp. bebop and the music which followed it.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > jazz > [noun] > types of

rooty-toot1852

soul music1920

Chicago1923

gutbucket1925

symphonic jazz1926

Dixieland1927

jive1928

white jazz1931

Harlem1934

jump1937

New Orleans1938

free jazz1941

progressive jazz1944

bebop1945

gypsy swing1945

modern jazz1946

bop1948

new jazz1949

cool1952

Afro-jazz1954

funk1954

gypsy jazz1955

trad jazz1955

trad1956

whorehouse music1956

new thing1962

fusion1965

1946 Amer. Jazz No. 1. 2/1 Alas, the atmosphere of ‘modern’ jazz is not very favourable for a return to the good tradition!

1955 D. Gillespie in N. Shapiro & N. Hentoff Hear me talkin' to Ya xix. 300 No one man or group of men started modern jazz.

1994 Folk Roots Mar. 59/1 Sicilian and Arabic folk themes are explored within an acoustic, modern jazz framework.

modern primitive n. a member of a contemporary tribal culture; (also) a person who adorns his or her body in a manner usually associated with certain tribal cultures, by tattooing, piercing, scarification, etc.

ΚΠ

1926 Man 26 60 Ethnographical data derived from a study of modern primitives.

1987 Current Anthropol. 28 64/1 Rejecting..analogies between Palaeolothic and modern primitives.

1987 V. Vale & A. Juno (title) Modern primitives: an investigation of contemporary adornment and ritual.

1995 U.S. News & World Rep. (Electronic ed.) 31 July Musafar..calls the mostly twentyish people in the body modification movement ‘the modern primitives’. This is another side of the movement: the conscious attempt to repudiate Western norms and values by adopting the marks and rings of primitive cultures.

modern roundabout n. North American a junction of several roads consisting of a central, usually circular island around which traffic moves in one direction; = roundabout n. 8.Cf. traffic circle n. at traffic n. Compounds 2, rotary n. 3.Modern roundabouts are typically smaller than traffic circles. Vehicles entering a modern roundabout are forced to maintain a relatively low speed and must yield to those already on the circle, thus reducing the risk of collision.Modern roundabout is also found in earlier British use (where ‘roundabout’ is the usual term for such junctions) as an unfixed collocation; see for example quot. 1939.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > junction of roads, paths, or tracks > [noun] > types of road junction > roundabout

circus1898

rond-point1903

rotonda1908

traffic circle1914

roundabout1926

rotary1940

gyratory1983

modern roundabout1987

1939 Cheltenham Chron. 4 Mar. 4/4 Tewkesbury's chief industry seemed to be pulling up the main streets and putting them down again. This has been very true..in the erection of a modern roundabout at the Cross.]

1987 Washington Post 6 Aug. (Maryland Weekly section) 2/2 A more effective way to reduce severe accidents..would be to replace signals with modern roundabouts.

2003 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 29 Nov. m2 The modern roundabout differs from older, more poorly designed traffic circles in several ways. It is compact, usually 25 to 70 metres in diameter... The entrances to the roundabout are angled at 30 or 40 degrees so that cars are deflected away from the centre.

modern slavery n. present-day exploitation of human beings for profit (likened to historical slavery), characterized by abusive and usually illegal practices such as people trafficking, enforced labour and sexual exploitation, debt bondage, and coercion of workers.Cf. slavery n. 1a(b).

ΘΠ

society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > enslavement

thirling1535

mancipation1577

enthraldom1582

esclavishing1583

enthralment1595

enthralling1603

beslaving1641

enslavement1692

society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > system or institution

slavery1728

servilism1857

chattelism1865

neoslavery1958

1990 Evening Herald (Dublin) 20 Sept. 14/5 The United Nations is concerned enough to have organised a summit meeting on child problems. Most modern slavery is economic. Children are sold as cheap labour or sexual commodities.

2003 New Yorker 21 Apr. 124/1 It proposed a federal felony charge for involuntary servitude, updating the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of slavery to take into account the forms of debt peonage and psychological coercion that characterize modern slavery.

2019 Times 25 Oct. 31/3 Research conducted by the Home Office has suggested that there are as many as 13,000 victims of modern slavery in Britain... Women are drafted into sex work while men are more commonly forced to do unpaid labour.

Modern Standard Arabic n. a variety of Arabic used in the modern period for formal writing and speaking, having a grammar based chiefly on Classical Arabic but with a modernized vocabulary; cf. Classical Arabic n. at classical adj. and n. Compounds 2; abbreviated MSA.

ΚΠ

1962 D. Abdo (title) A course in modern standard Arabic.

1963 Language 39 330 A problem facing non-Arabic scholars is what to call this modern..form of Arabic... I will arbitrarily select..modern standard Arabic, or MSA, as a term of reference.

1988 Guardian 19 Jan. 17 (advt.) You must..have native or near-native competence in spoken Arabic and in written modern standard Arabic.

2010 A. Darwish Transl. & News Making in Contemp. Arabic Television ii. 83 It suddenly dawned on her that Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) was not her mother tongue and that her mother tongue was Egyptian Arabic.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online December 2022).

单词	modern
释义	modernadj.n. Brit. /ˈmɒdn/, U.S. /ˈmɑdərn/ Forms: 1500s–1700s moderne, 1500s– modern. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French moderne; Latin modernus. Etymology: < (i) Middle French, French moderne, noun (14th cent. denoting a person of the present time as opposed to antiquity, 1756 denoting a person with modern tastes, 1694 denoting a work of modern architecture) and adjective (1455 in sense ‘of the present time’, 16th cent. designating the current form of a language, 1680 in architecture moderne ), and its etymon (ii) post-classical Latin modernus of the present time (5th cent.; from c1125 in British sources designating a person currently holding office), also as noun denoting people (early 6th cent.) or things (5th cent.) < classical Latin modo just now (use as adverb of ablative of modus mode n.) + -ernus (in classical Latin hodiernus hodiern adj.).Compare Italian moderno (1308 as noun, 1319 as adjective), Spanish moderno (1433), Portuguese moderno (1572); compare also Dutch modern (early 17th cent.), Swedish modern (1668), German modern (early 18th cent.), Danish moderne (1767 as †modern), all probably < French. A. adj. †1. Being in existence at this time; current, present. Frequently applied (sometimes as postmodifier) to the current holder or incumbent of an office or position, esp. a reigning monarch. Obsolete.Quot. c1485 perhaps belongs to sense A. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [adjective] present1340 nowa1393 presentary?a1425 unrun1474 modernc1485 hodiern?a1513 actual1525 modernal1542 instantc1550 this1582 immediate1605 current1608 nowadays1609 nowaday1632 hodiernal1656 living1659 running1659 daily1663 existent1676 existing1827 present-day1833 presential1878 today1908 c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Law of Armys (2005) 250 Gif a man proponis [etc.]..he suld suere..yat jt is sa suthely, be alde doctouris. Bot be the opynioun of the doctouris oure maisteris modernis..he suld say he traistis fermly jt be sa. a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 83 Hodiern, modern, sempitern, Angelicall regyne. 1555 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 285 The next parliament, to be haldin..in name of our maist gracious quene moderne. 1597 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Glasgow (1876) 185 Hew, erle of Eglingtoune moderne. 1617 in Misc. New Spalding Club (1890) I. 117 Servandis to our most gratious moderne soverane lord James. 1700 in Pennsylvania Arch. (1852) I. 127 Being obliged to it by thy former as well as modern kindness. 1752 Charter Soc. Antiq. London 7 Wee have nominated..Martin Folkes, Esquire, to be the first and modern President of the said Society. 2. a. Of or relating to the present and recent times, as opposed to the remote past; of, relating to, or originating in the current age or period.Often contrasted with ancient and hence in historical contexts taken as applying either to the entire period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, or (when medieval began to be used to signify a distinct period) to the time subsequent to the Middle Ages.modern history: see history n. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [adjective] > modern modern1585 new-schoolish1844 New World1847 latter day1850 contemporary1859 unantiquated1859 todayish1864 contemporaneous1871 modernistic1878 presentist1878 up to date1888 down to date1893 up-with-the-times1893 de nos jours1909 up to the minute1909 chromium-plate1924 chromium-plated1924 contempo1944 now1955 New Wave1960 nouveau1974 1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. xv. 16 b The writings of the auncient and moderne Geographers and Historiographers. 1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. ii. 54 [It] is a dittie of it self, and no staffe, yet some moderne writers haue vsed it but very seldome. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso ii. xxviii. 269 The women of this modern age, had as much need of amendment, as had the men. 1676 J. Ray Corr. (1848) 122 Much also he hath..taken out of some modern writer it hath not been my hap to see. 1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 275 There is another Aqueduct somewhat older, yet still modern. 1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Pref. Our English Tongue..may be said to equal, if not surpass all other Modern Languages. 1713 A. Pope in Guardian 16 Mar. 1/2 The Authoress of a famous Modern Romance. 1757 J. H. Grose Voy. E.-Indies v. 74 These last are of moderner date. 1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. III. 222 Their country appears to have been situated..at a great distance from the modern Padua. 1774 W. Mitford Ess. Harmony Lang. 260 The most admired modern masters. 1810 E. D. Clarke Trav. Var. Countries: Pt. 1st xxv. 640 Perhaps we are not authorized in considering the modern Greeks as legitimate descendants of the Getæ. 1849 Art Jrnl. 11 69/3 Between this society and one begun some years ago for the encouragement of modern Art and native artists, there should be no rivalry. 1864 J. F. Kirk Hist. Charles the Bold (U.S. ed.) II. iv. i. 170 The close of the 15th century is universally recognized as..the starting-point..of Modern, in distinction from Mediæval, history. 1900 L. F. Baum Wonderful Wizard of Oz Introd. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder-tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. 1948 D. Diringer Alphabet ii. v. 327 Many ancient and modern savants dare to connect the Albanians of the Balkans with the Caucasian Albanians. 1983 A. Bullock Ernest Bevin iii. 82 It is arguable that Ernest Bevin owed less to formal education than any Englishman to hold so high an office..in modern times. b. Designating the form of a language that is currently used, or the form representing the most recent significant stage of development, as opposed to any earlier form. Cf. modern Latin n. and adj.In historical philology applied to the last of the three periods into which it is customary to divide the history of most living languages (as distinguished from Old and Middle). Cf. Modern English n. and adj. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > a language > [adjective] > living, dead, or archaic forsakena1613 living1657 mort1659 modern1699 middle1830 archaic1832 relict1887 1699 M. Lister Journey to Paris (new ed.) 108 Another Book overwritten in a small Modern Greek Hand, about 150 years ago. 1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. xxx. 275 I asserted that the modern Greek was as different from that spoke and written by the ancients, as the English used now from the old Saxon spoke in the time of Hengist. 1834 J. R. Planché Hist. Brit. Costume 89 A garment called bliaut or bliaus... In this bliaus we may discover the modern French blouse, a tunic or smock-frock. 1841 G. Borrow Zincali I. ii. i. 235 The number of Persian, Sclavonian, and modern Greek words with which it [sc. the language of the ‘Gitános of Estremadura’] is chequered. 1869 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. I. i. iii. §4. 194 The mincer..raises the middle part [of the tongue] and produces (lj) which degenerates into (i), as in Modern French. 1927 S. Jónsson Primer Mod. Icelandic p. v The first suggestion that I should write a text book of modern Icelandic was made to me in 1917. 1954 A. Koestler Invisible Writing iv. 54 I had acquired it [sc. Russian]..by the same pressure-cooker method by which I had learnt modern Hebrew. 1971 N. Fisher Rise at Dawn x. 169 He was in Corfu and he speaks good modern Greek. 1992 Word 43 4 Modern Welsh is said to begin with the 14th-century poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym. c. Designating a person or (less commonly) a place regarded as the contemporary equivalent of a historical counterpart. See also modern Babylon n. at Compounds 2.Particularly common in the 19th cent. ΚΠ 1791 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 32/2 The gentleman whom he has insolently called Thersites, and the modern Zoilus. 1843 Nonconformist 3 745 No racketing of engines to turn his domain into a modern Babel. 1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. i. 41 ‘Miquelites’..are the modern ‘Hermandad’, the brotherhood which formed the old Spanish rural armed police. 1873 A. Trollope Eustace Diamonds I. xviii. 244 It wasn't for him to suggest what objections might rise to the brain of a modern Othello; but after some hesitation he said that he would be there. 1897 B. Stoker Dracula viii. 103 If I don't sleep at once, chloral, the modern Morpheus! 1992 Economist 22 Aug. 4/2 If market mechanisms were inherently efficient, Shenzen..would have emerged as a miniature Wall Street instead of a modern Dodge City. d. Of, relating to, or designating a current or recent movement or trend in art, architecture, etc., characterized by a departure from or a repudiation of accepted or traditional styles and values. Frequently in modern art. Also: designating or relating to work produced by such a movement; = modernist adj. Cf. abstract adj. 6. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [adjective] > modern and post-modern modern1820 contemporary1859 postmodern1916 society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > architecture > style of architecture > [adjective] > other styles florida1706 massive1723 rounded1757 round-arched1782 castellar1789 baronial1807 rational1813 English colonial1817 massy1817 transitional1817 Scottish Baronial1829 rococo1830 flamboyant1832 Scotch Baronial1833 Churrigueresque1845 Russo-Byzantine1845 soaring1849 trenchant1849 vernacular1857 Scots Baronial1864 baroque1867 Perp.1867 rayonnant1873 Dutch colonial1876 Neo-Grec1878 rococoesque1885 Richardsonian1887 federal1894 organic1896 confectionery1897 European-style1907 postmodern1916 Lutyens1921 modern1927 moderne1928 functionalist1930 Williamsburg1931 Colonial Revival1934 packing case1935 Corbusian1936 lavatorial1936 pseudish1938 Adamesque1942 rationalist1952 Miesian1956 open-planned1958 Lutyensesque1961 façade1962 Odeon1964 high-tech1979 Populuxe1986 1820 H. Fuseli Lect. Painting II. iv. 6 The Phantasiae of the ancients, which modern art,..in what is called Fancy-Pictures, has..debased. 1895 E. C. Dowson et al. tr. R. Muther Hist. Mod. Painting I. 10 Because this distinction between the eclectic and the personal, the derived and the independent, has not yet been carried out with sufficient strictness..it has hitherto..been found so difficult to discover the distinctive style of modern art. 1927 C. Bell Landmarks 19th-Cent. Painting 5 Géricault and then Delacroix were the new influences in France; in England the innovator was Constable. From these points of departure you can trace the whole glorious history of modern art. 1927 R. H. Wilenski (title) The modern movement in art. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover xi. 174 Clifford collected very modern pictures, at very moderate prices. 1938 O. Lancaster Pillar to Post 74 When, shortly after the War, the Modern Movement..was first brought to public notice it led to a natural and healthy reaction against the excessive ornament..of the previous generation. 1958 S. W. Cheney Story Mod. Art (rev. ed.) p. v I have accepted here the broadest traditional usage of the term ‘modern art’ as covering the course of creative invention since 1800. 1972 P. M. Bardi Archit. xix. 117/1 The flight of refugees from the Nazis..scattered the pioneers of the Modern movement across western Europe and America. 1978 P. Griffiths Conc. Hist. Mod. Music i. 7 In the context of the arts, ‘modern’ implies more about aesthetics and technique than about chronology. 1992 Rev. Eng. Stud. 43 232 It can be said that with this work [sc. Heart of Darkness]..Conrad invented the modern novel. e. Zoology, Geology, etc. Of or belonging to the present day or a comparatively recent period of history; being of the kind now extant or prevalent. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [adjective] > modern > belonging to the modern period modern1822 mod1882 1822 W. Buckland in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 187 The modern hyæna..is an inhabitant exclusively of hot climates. 1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 114 If such species be termed modern, in comparison to races which preceded them, their remains, nevertheless, enter into submarine deposits many hundred miles in length. 1873 J. W. Dawson Story Earth & Man x. 248 The modern damans or conies. a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 542 In all modern flying birds..there is a fusion of about four terminal vertebrae to form the ploughshare-bone or pygostyle. 1950 D. P. Quiring Functional Anat. Vertebrates xiii. 509 The third lower molars of Gigantopithecus have a mass about six times larger than those of modern man. 1982 R. G. Barry & R. J. Chorley Atmosphere, Weather & Climate (ed. 4) viii. 325 ‘Modern’ climatic conditions only became established during post-glacial time. 1992 M. Schaffer-Fehre tr. S. Schaal & W. Ziegler Messel ii. 15 In their evolutionary development numerous orders of modern mammals hail back to the Eocene. 3. a. Characteristic of the present time, or the time of writing; not old-fashioned, antiquated, or obsolete; employing the most up-to-date ideas, techniques, or equipment.In early use chiefly with reference to warfare. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the future or time to come > newness or novelty > [adjective] > new, novel, or not previously known newOE fresha1382 unhearda1382 new-founda1425 raw1448 newfanglec1450 newfangled?1531 new-fashioned1574 novile1586 modern1590 newelty1590 unheard1592 novellous1601 new-discovered1609 novelizing1625 nouvelle1650 new-type1887 edgy1976 1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 8 b Without composing them of diuers sorts of weapons, according to the moderne vse. 1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres Gloss. 251 Moderne warre, is the new order of warre vsed in our age. 1607 B. Jonson Volpone iii. iv. sig. G2^v He has so moderne, and facile a veine, Fitting the time, and catching the Court-eare. View more context for this quotation 1652 P. Heylyn Cosmographie i. sig. Q Embattelled according to the modern Art of Fortifications. 1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode i. i. 12 Bell. He thinks himself the Pattern of modern Gallantry. Dor. He is indeed the pattern of modern Foppery. 1747 Fortune's Tricks in Forty-six 12 When the Pretty Fellows about Town find themselves devoured by the real Fires of modern Love. 1775 W. Buchanan Inq. Anc. Sc. Surnames (1820) 28 The more modern method of genealogising. 1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. xiii. 147 There is one remarkably pretty sitting room up stairs..and with modern furniture it would be delightful. View more context for this quotation 1872 W. D. Howells Their Wedding Journey iii. 69 They conjectured..flavors of Tennyson and Browning in his verse, with a moderner tint from Morris. 1885 Academy 24 Jan. 53/1 Perhaps Gray is at his modernest in the ‘Ode on Vicissitude’,..if not most modern of all in that final quatrain of the Elegy. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 26 Jan. 3/2 Against such foes, men with the modernest artillery and highest explosives are utterly powerless. 1937 Amer. Home Apr. 66/2 (caption) An old-fashioned dining room (left) goes modern. 1988 S. Afr. Panorama Apr. 46/2 Both Pretoria and Johannesburg have a modern well-equipped clinic. 1998 World of Interiors Feb. 10 ‘They're spatially very modern’, he explains, ‘not at all revival’. b. Of a person or (occasionally) something personified: up to date in behaviour, outlook, opinions, etc.; embracing innovation and new ideas; liberal-minded. Esp. in modern girl, modern woman. ΚΠ 1701 D. Defoe True-born Englishman i. 24 But England, Modern to the last degree, Borrows or makes her own Nobility. 1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison V. xiii. 75 You..are not a modern woman; have neither wings to your shoulders, nor gad-fly in your cap: You love home. 1804 ‘E. de Acton’ Tale without Title I. 194 Our modern misses; who..look offendedly grave at those freedoms in conversation. 1859 E. C. Gaskell in Fraser's Mag. 59 246/1 What modern young woman, of average ability and education, who is not at least ‘a writer’ in some magazine, or..the author of a book? 1899 H. James Awkward Age xxii. 237 The modern girl, the product of our hard London facts. 1914 G. B. Shaw Fanny's Last Play Induct., in Misalliance 154 I am not, I hope, a modern man in any sense of the word. 1975 A. Osmond Saladin! v. iii. 222 In his company she felt relaxed..and what, alas, could that mean except that she was not, after all, a modern girl? 1993 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 Nov. 64/2 Commentators and critics, most of whom are Muslim as well as modern and secular, see no difficulty in belonging to the Islamic community that is so much a feature of contemporary Egypt. †4. Everyday, ordinary, commonplace. Obsolete.Frequent in Shakespeare. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [adjective] > usual or ordinary commona1325 naturalc1390 ordinarc1400 ordinary?a1425 ilk-day's1488 naturely?c1510 famous1528 familiar1533 vulgar1553 workaday1554 modern1591 tralatitious1653 commonish1792 workday1808 everyday1813 bread and butter1822 normal1843 common-seeming1857 tralatician1893 wake-a-day1893 1591 T. Lodge Catharos f. 27 It..maketh him blinde and inconsiderate in matters aswell moderne, as necessarie to his saluation. 1602 B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii. sig. L4 Alas! That, were no moderne Consequence, To haue cothurnall Buskins frighted hence. View more context for this quotation 1612 B. Jonson Alchemist iv. i. sig. H3^v Why this is yet A kinde of moderne happinesse, to haue Dol common for a great Lady. View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iii. iv. 42 Then..would I..rowze from sleepe that fell Anatomy..Which scornes a moderne Inuocation! View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) ii. vii. 156 The Iustice..With eyes seuere, and beard of formall cut, Full of wise sawes, and moderne instances. View more context for this quotation 5. Heraldry. France modern n. the form of the arms of France adopted by Charles V of France in 1405 (see quot. 1969); opposed to France ancient n. at ancient adj. 8. ΘΚΠ society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > [noun] > armorial bearings or coat of arms > royal arms of France > modern arms of France France modern1889 1715 Ashmole's Hist. Inst. Order Garter 511 John Beaufort,..Quarterly France modern and England. 1869 J. E. Cussans Handbk. Heraldry (rev. ed.) xvii. 209 Henry the Fourth:..three Fleurs-de-lys were substituted for a Field semé, for the Arms of France. This alteration..constituted what is commonly known as France modern. 1889 P. O. Hutchinson in Notes & Gleanings (Exeter) 2 50/2 The French arms are represented as ‘France Modern’. 1969 J. Franklyn & J. Tanner Encycl. Dict. Heraldry 139/2 France Modern, ‘azure, three fleurs-de-lys Or’: arms adopted by the King of France, K. Ch. V, in 1405 to difference from the King of England's assumed French quarter: ‘azure, semé-de-lys Or’, i.e. France Ancient. 6. Typography. Designating any of a group of typefaces developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, distinguished by flat serifs and increased contrast between the thick and thin parts of the letters. Esp. in modern face. ΘΚΠ society > communication > printing > types, blocks, or plates > relating to type > style of type > [adjective] > others modern1764 script1782 Caxtonian1811 Porsonian1813 antique type?1817 Aldine1837 Scotch1847 old-face1859 Times1860 old-faced1863 Fell type1883 Fournier1902 monotype1910 Goudy1933 monoline1962 slab serif1970 monospaced1972 1764 Oxf. Sausage 28 Cruel as the Mandate Of mitred Priests, who Baskett late enjoined To throw aside the reverend Letters black And print Fast-Prayers in modern Type! 1819 R. Austin in A. F. Johnson Type Designs (1934) iii. 97 The modern or new fashioned faced printing-type at present in use was introduced by the French, about 20 years ago. 1894 Amer. Dict. Printing & Bookmaking 379/2 Modern faces, these are those kinds of Romans which have been cut since the beginning of the century. 1922 D. B. Updike Printing Types I. ii. 19 The much later form [of letter], exhibiting greater contrasts of thick and thin lines, constitutes a ‘modern face’ letter. 1934 A. F. Johnson Type Designs iii. 73 During the eighteenth century the design of our roman types underwent a radical change, resulting in the style which we know as modern face, the type of the nineteenth century and still the type used in our newspapers and most of our books. 1972 P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 210 By the second decade of the nineteenth century English printers were using modern face almost exclusively. 7. British Education. Designating a secondary school in which emphasis is placed on subjects other than the classical languages and literature; (also) designating these subjects. See also modern Greats n. at Compounds 2, secondary modern school at secondary adj. 5g.In some English public schools formerly applied (esp. in modern side) to a separately organized division of the school in which modern subjects form nearly the whole curriculum, Latin and Greek not being taught. ΘΚΠ society > education > learning > study > subject or object of study > [adjective] > modern modern1862 1862 Rep. Publ. Schools Comm. (1864) IV. 281 There would be this danger;..that idle and incapable boys would wish to enter this modern school to get off Latin composition and Greek. 1881 F. E. Hulme Town, College, & Neighbourhood Marlborough 91 In the modern school the subjects of instruction are mathematics [etc.]. 1884 Jrnl. Educ. Sept. 348/2 Modern sides have grown and flourished. 1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 7 Nov. 2/2 ‘Modern sides’ are either effective (as they all ought to be) or non-effective. If the former, there are scholarships in ‘modern subjects’ for them to win. 1914 ‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life i. 16 The Headmaster of the old school, who looks upon the classics as the foundation of all education, and regards modern sides as a sop to the parental Cerberus. 1944 Ann. Reg. 1943 62 Three main types of secondary schools—grammar, modern, and technical. 1975 Times 29 Aug. 10/4 When university entrance is considered there is a 47 per cent advantage of the combined grammar and modern schools over the comprehensives. B. n. Chiefly in plural. 1. a. A person who lives in or belongs to the present time; a person who belongs to a modern period or epoch, as contrasted with an ancient one. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [noun] > one who belongs to the present neoteric1583 modern1585 modernist1588 moderner1592 1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. ii. 2 b The Iles Baleares, so aunciently called: but by the modernes Maiorque and Minorque. 1601 R. Dolman tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. 288 And in this number is the whale, of which the ancients write, and whome some moderns call Gibbar. 1616 B. Jonson Epicœne iv. iv, in Wks. I. 574 Hee must haue Seneca read to him, and Plvtarch, and the Ancients; the Modernes are not for this disease. View more context for this quotation 1650 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (ed. 2) vi. xiv. 288 The..more Western term of Longitude, from whence the moderns begin their commensuration. 1668 J. Dryden Of Dramatick Poesie 25 He maintains the Moderns have acquir'd a new perfection in writing, I can onely grant they have alter'd the mode of it. 1717 M. Prior Alma i. 520 Some in ancient books delight; Others prefer what moderns write. 1784 European Mag. & London Rev. May 366/2 No modern has been heard to play an adagio with greater taste and feeling. 1812 T. Taylor Diss. Philos. Aristotle (title page) The insufficiency also of the Philosophy that has been substituted by the Moderns for that of Aristotle is demonstrated. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVII. 2/1 In point of touch [when playing an organ], and mechanism generally, the moderns are far superior to their predecessors. 1888 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 539 The old moderns, say Chaucer, Spenser and Le Sage. 1913 E. K. Chatterton Ships & Ways of Other Days xii. 265 We called attention some time back to those spritsails which seem so curious to us moderns. 1992 Independent 19 Oct. 14/3 Dr Stringer argues that this is evidence for a lengthy period of co-existence between Neanderthals and moderns in Europe. b. Applied to things. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [noun] > modernity > something that is modern modern1735 modernism1737 modernity1753 contemporary1962 1735 J. Price Some Considerations Stone-bridge Thames 14 Description of many fine Bridges..in Italy wherein the finest among the Moderns is the Farnesian. 1797 J. Farington Diary 15 July (1923) I. lx. 212 Old pictures only true models, they having been proved by time,—fashion may make moderns pass. 1991 Garden (Royal Hort. Soc.) Mar. 133/2 David Austin's plan was..to see if he could produce shrubs with the vigour and other good qualities of the Bourbons, including of course their old-style flowers, added to the..wider colour range of the moderns. 1994 Coin News May 38/2 I happened to show it to a dealer, expert in ancient coins, but whose knowledge of moderns was much like my own. 2. a. With the: that which is modern. ΚΠ 1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 80 Some were allured by the modern, others reverenced the antient. 1798 M. Wollstonecraft On Poetry 168 In the works of the poets who fasten on their affections, they see grosser faults, and the very images which shock their taste in the modern. 1849 H. D. Thoreau Week Concord & Merrimack Rivers 161 History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. 1905 Daily Chron. 21 Jan. 4/6 He rejoices in that inability to depict the modern which is the most convincing sign of the contemporary. 1991 D. Rieff Los Angeles ii. vi. 94 These were the devices that had permitted an America victorious in the World War to create a society that..seemed on the cutting edge of the modern. †b. upon the modern: (probably) peculiar to modern times. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ 1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality II. ix. 135 I apprehend that this character is pretty much upon the modern. In all ancient or dead languages we have no term, any way adequate, whereby we may express it. 3. a. A person with modern tastes or opinions, or who belongs to the modern school of thought on any subject; a person who advocates or practises a departure from traditional styles or values in any sphere; = modernist n. 4. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the present (time) > [noun] > modernity > one who is modern in methods or opinions modernist1864 new eraist1872 modern1888 presentist1923 modernus1953 1888 Mrs. H. Ward Robert Elsmere I. ii. xii. 346 She was playing Wagner, Brahms, and Rubinstein, interpreting all those passionate voices of the subtlest moderns. 1897 Mag. of Art 283 It will be deemed old-fashioned by the latest of moderns. 1905 J. Orr Probl. Old Test. xii. 453 (note) Most of the moderns deny the supernatural character of prophecy. 1928 Amer. Mercury Oct. 219/1 The woman, a hard-boiled modern of the sort frequenting hotel lobbies in search of free meals from suckers. 1978 E. Blishen Sorry, Dad iii. vii. 145 It was what, he would tell me, could be expected of ‘you moderns’. ‘No sense of grammar. No control. No discipline. Free verse. Aldous Huxley.’ 1985 R. Harries Prayer & Pursuit of Happiness vii. 138 Being suspicious moderns we cannot help suspecting that talk about God's love is a compensation for a lack of human love. 1991 Antiquity 65 1005/1 It was only..under the influence of such people as Picasso and the early Moderns, that what previously had been regarded as ‘primitive’ was brought back into the mainstream of art connoisseurship. b. A work of art, architecture, etc., which is the product of a modern trend or movement. ΚΠ 1959 Daily Tel. 1 May 1/1 ‘Moderns’ which, two years ago, would have been grouped together in what some writers cuttingly described as the ‘kitchen sink’ or ‘horror’ galleries now hang boldly throughout the exhibition. 1975 Country Life 2 Jan. 37/2 In the visual arts the Walker Art Centre houses a world-famous collection of moderns. 4. Short for modern first edition n. at Compounds 2. ΚΠ 1922 M. Sadleir Excurs. in Victorian Bibliogr. 7 The dapper expert in ingenious moderns with his prefaces, his cancel-titles, [etc.]. 1975 Bibliognost Aug. 5 The chance that someone will find a simple first edition of a modern author is slim, because [John F.] Fleming's firsts are very special... Each would be priced well above the average cost of ‘moderns’. 5. Short for modern dance n. at Compounds 2. Also: a category of ballroom dance. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun] modern dancing1912 modern dance1916 modern1933 1933 N.Y. Times 10 Dec. x. 4 (advt.) 16 one-hour lessons... Ballet..Ballroom..‘Modern’..Musical Comedy. 1979 Washington Post 24 Sept. b5/3 Later, when I started dancing again, I chose modern. 1994 Ballroom Dancing Times Feb. 185/2 Modern was the easiest to bring into the fold initially, because many of the dancers did both Old time and Modern. 2002 N.Y. Mag. 29 Apr. 32/1 A student of ballet since he was 6, and of modern since freshman year, Adam says it's in the dance studio at his school where he feels ‘I'm becoming more and more flamboyant every day’. Compounds C1. a. With participial adjectives. modern-bred adj. ΚΠ 1808 H. More Cœlebs in Search of Wife I. i. 9 The mind of a true modern-bred lady. 1990 Re: the Tarot, etc. in alt.pagan (Usenet newsgroup) 11 May The symbols are at least as metaphorical as the traditional tarot, but much clearer to my modern-bred mind. modern-built adj. ΚΠ 1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure I. 168 Our antient sturdy barons..whose race is now so thoroughly refin'd and fritter'd away into the more delicate modern-built frame of our pap-nerv'd softlings. 1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility III. vi. 111 Cleveland was a spacious, modern-built house. View more context for this quotation 1905 Daily Chron. 28 Dec. 4/4 Most of these furnaces are modern built. 1999 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 24 Mar. 2 The development..consists of seven homes, modern-built in baronial fashion. modern-cut adj. ΚΠ 1808 C. Stower Printer's Gram. (heading) Specimens of modern-cut printing types, from the founderies of Messrs. Fry and Steele, and Messrs. Caslon and Catherwood. 1902 T. L. De Vinne Pract. Typogr.: Treat. Title-pages 234 Of modern-cut types we have many varieties. 1990 Sunday Express Mag. 25 Nov. 69/2 The cushion-cut diamonds are of a roughly oblong shape with considerably greater depth above and below the girdle than is found in modern-cut diamonds. modern-faced adj. ΚΠ 1874 G. Simpson in George Eliot Lett. (1956) VI. 44 Tinted paper ought never to be used with modern faced type. It suits ancient face only. modern-looking adj. ΚΠ 1819 L. Hunt in Examiner 31 Oct. 700/1 The whole of the piece [sc. Dryden's King Arthur] is strangely modern-looking and meretricious. 1992 New Scientist 14 Nov. 44/1 Most palaeontologists now believe that the first modern-looking Europeans..originated from a stock that did not leave Africa until about 100,000 years ago. modern-made adj. ΚΠ 1807 W. H. Ireland Stultifera Navis xliv. 193 There is, however, no rule without exception, as may be instanced in a famous vendor of modern made books. 1899 Daily News 27 Mar. 2/7 The allegation was that the punches had been forged and used upon modern-made silver-plate to represent antique goods. 2000 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 18 Mar. 13 Of modern-made Irish crystal, perhaps one of the best bets to rise in value are Waterford's special millennium glasses. modern-minded adj. ΚΠ 1846 Southern Q. Rev. 20 Oct. 330 Sober and modern-minded as we are, we cannot help fancying that we a see a sort of map of our travels upon the edges of the leaves [of our journal]. 1907 Dublin Rev. July 191 The author is at times betrayed into making Neri almost impossibly modern-minded. 1994 Western Living Oct. 3/3 A fine example of early Shingle Style architecture reinvented with modern-minded genius. † modern-painted adj. Obsolete ΚΠ 1809 M. Berry Jrnl. 4 Nov. (1865) II. 402 The library of Trinity, a fine large room, with a hideous modern-painted window. † modern-practised adj. Obsolete ΚΠ 1756 A. Murphy Gray's-Inn Jrnl. II. No. 86. 195 Many of his Turns did not allude to modern-practised Life. modern-sounding adj. ΚΠ 1880 Littell's Living Age 18 Mar. 647/1 The strange and interesting phenomenon is to find, in such a modern-sounding publication [in China] as a government gazette and court circular. 1903 Daily Chron. 10 June 7/1 A piece with the more modern-sounding title of ‘The Court of Comfort’. 1992–3 Guitarist (BNC) This little machine packs a real punch, has a very commendable number and variety of sounds, and is a very modern-sounding drum box. b. With nouns forming adjectives used attributively. modern-day adj. ΚΠ 1870 Q. Rev. 129 221 Even in domestic correspondence it makes all the difference to the interest of a modern-day letter that its thread may be dropped anywhere, to be resumed easily on the morrow. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 5 July 2/3 No one can fail to be impressed by the seriousness of modern-day cricket. 1990 Notes & Queries Dec. 517/1 Modern-day language formalists such as Katz have little time for Coleridge. modern-dress adj. ΚΠ 1885 J. K. Jerome On Stage 64 For ordinary modern-dress parts, we had to use our own things entirely. 1992 Financial Times 22 Feb. p. XVI/3 The film turns Henri Murger's Parisian stories..into a modern-dress spoof on artistic attitudinising. modern-style adj. ΚΠ 1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 V. lvii. 439 The narrative of the method of the deed has a certain old quaintness that may relieve it of the stiffness of the modern-style book. 1927 Melody Maker Aug. 781/2 The voice again is heard together with trumpet and saxophones alternating in a modern-style extemporisation. 1975 Guardian 20 Jan. 8/3 Modern-style choreography. C2. modern Babylon n. London. ΚΠ 1835 J. M. Wilson Hist. Tales Borders I. 356/1 I proceeded to London... Months passed away, and I was still a wanderer upon the streets of the modern Babylon. 1850 C. Dickens David Copperfield xxxvi. 374 Bidding adieu to the modern Babylon. 1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvi. [Eumaeus] 582 The sights of the great metropolis, the spectacle of our modern Babylon. modern convenience n. an amenity, appliance, fitting, etc., such as is usual in a well-equipped, modern home; frequently in plural; cf. mod con n. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > advantage > convenience > [noun] > a convenience ease1393 readiness1523 convenience1609 accommodation1612 conveniency1638 modern convenience1859 amenity1913 mod con1934 1825 R. Chambers Trad. Edinb. (1869) 226 The Lord Justice-clerk's house was provided with a pin or risp, instead of the more modern convenience—a knocker.] 1859 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 81 With every modern convenience and improvement: with bath-rooms..dish-lifts, [etc.] 1926 Times 6 May 1/6 (advt.) Superior accommodation in lady's quiet house..all modern conveniences. 1990 P. Auster Music of Chance v. 108 A fully equipped kitchen. A refrigerator, a stove, a sink, all the modern conveniences. modern dance n. a free expressive style of dance developing in the early 20th cent. as a counter to classical ballet. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun] modern dancing1912 modern dance1916 modern1933 1884 G. F. Pentecost (title) The Christian and the modern dance.] 1916 H. Munsterberg in T. A. Faulkner Lure of Dance xi. 89 The modern dance is erotic and sex-inciting. 1933 J. Martin Mod. Dance 3 By the modern dance we..imply by a method of negation those types of dancing which are neither classic nor romantic. 1957 G. B. L. Wilson Dict. Ballet 189 Modern Dance claims to make much use of ‘natural movements’ and it is also a reflexion of a state of mind. 1993–4 Dance Internat. Winter 40/1 She progressively streamlined traditional Bharata Natyam movements, slowly introducing steps from the modern dance vocabulary which she then wove into her evolving structure. modern dancer n. an exponent of modern dance. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun] > dancer modern dancer1968 1968 J. Winearls Mod. Dance (ed. 2) 9 Modern Dancers consider that Ballet cannot deal satisfactorily with all possible dance-subjects. modern dancing n. now rare = modern dance n. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > dancing > modern dance > [noun] modern dancing1912 modern dance1916 modern1933 1912 E. L. Urlin Dancing Anc. & Mod. p. xv Modern dancing begins where..the art survives solely on account of the pleasure it gives to the performer, or to the spectator. 1933 J. Martin Mod. Dance 2 There are as many methods and systems of modern dancing as there are dancers. modern dress n. contemporary clothing; spec. costumes for a theatrical production in a style from the period of performance rather than that of a play's setting or time of writing. ΚΠ 1688 W. Canning Gesta Grayorum Ep. Ded. The Language it self is all that Age could afford; which, allowing something for the Modern Dress and Words in Fashion, is not beneath any we have now. 1706 D. Defoe Caledonia i. 20 And when the Characters we shall compare, A Northern Highland-man's a Christian there. Polite his Manners, and his Modern Dress, Is Beauty all, when match't with Ugliness. 1854 Chambers's Jrnl. 1 124 She looked like a Greek statue that had come alive, and by mere contact classicised its modern dress. 1899 Times 29 Nov. 6/2 Aynsworth and Sneer as Dangle and Kerr appeared in modern dress, which was somewhat unusual. 1979 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ont.) 31 Mar. 6/2 It is mainly for this reason that Ayatollah Khumaini has called upon Iranian women to trade their modern dress for the Burka. 2001 Guardian 22 Oct. i. 16/1 One of the most appealing qualities of Rennie Harris's hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet is that it has none of the self-conscious hipness of Shakespeare performed in modern dress. modern first n. short for modern first edition n. ΚΠ 1924 G. McLeish's Catal. 13 Essential to the collection of ‘modern firsts’. 1994 Bk. & Mag. Collector June 38/2 Perhaps the highlight for collectors of modern firsts is a virtually mint copy of Graham Greene's debut novel, The Man Within. modern first edition n. (in bookselling) the first edition of any book published after about 1900. ΚΠ 1927 Amer. Mercury Feb. p. xviii (advt.) Highest price paid for modern first editions, art books, architecture, fine bindings, limited editions, facetiae. 1968 Bertram Rota Ltd. Catal. No. 158 (verso front cover) We are always pleased to receive offers of modern first editions and private press books in fine state. modern Greats n. (at Oxford University) the school of philosophy, politics, and economics. ΚΠ 1909 Wanted! New School at Oxf. 4 It is a plan for, as it were, a modern-side Greats, based on Philosophy, but also..containing an admixture of certain other subjects.] 1925 Times 15 July 19/3 The examiners in the Final Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘Modern Greats’) issued the following class list. 1935 N. Mitchison We have been Warned ii. 146 He was..thinking what a rotten school Modern Greats was. 1971 D. Scott A. D. Lindsay iii. 50 A new School of Politics, Philosophy and Economics—‘Modern Greats’. modern jazz n. jazz as developed in the 1940s and 1950s; esp. bebop and the music which followed it. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > jazz > [noun] > types of rooty-toot1852 soul music1920 Chicago1923 gutbucket1925 symphonic jazz1926 Dixieland1927 jive1928 white jazz1931 Harlem1934 jump1937 New Orleans1938 free jazz1941 progressive jazz1944 bebop1945 gypsy swing1945 modern jazz1946 bop1948 new jazz1949 cool1952 Afro-jazz1954 funk1954 gypsy jazz1955 trad jazz1955 trad1956 whorehouse music1956 new thing1962 fusion1965 1946 Amer. Jazz No. 1. 2/1 Alas, the atmosphere of ‘modern’ jazz is not very favourable for a return to the good tradition! 1955 D. Gillespie in N. Shapiro & N. Hentoff Hear me talkin' to Ya xix. 300 No one man or group of men started modern jazz. 1994 Folk Roots Mar. 59/1 Sicilian and Arabic folk themes are explored within an acoustic, modern jazz framework. modern primitive n. a member of a contemporary tribal culture; (also) a person who adorns his or her body in a manner usually associated with certain tribal cultures, by tattooing, piercing, scarification, etc. ΚΠ 1926 Man 26 60 Ethnographical data derived from a study of modern primitives. 1987 Current Anthropol. 28 64/1 Rejecting..analogies between Palaeolothic and modern primitives. 1987 V. Vale & A. Juno (title) Modern primitives: an investigation of contemporary adornment and ritual. 1995 U.S. News & World Rep. (Electronic ed.) 31 July Musafar..calls the mostly twentyish people in the body modification movement ‘the modern primitives’. This is another side of the movement: the conscious attempt to repudiate Western norms and values by adopting the marks and rings of primitive cultures. modern roundabout n. North American a junction of several roads consisting of a central, usually circular island around which traffic moves in one direction; = roundabout n. 8.Cf. traffic circle n. at traffic n. Compounds 2, rotary n. 3.Modern roundabouts are typically smaller than traffic circles. Vehicles entering a modern roundabout are forced to maintain a relatively low speed and must yield to those already on the circle, thus reducing the risk of collision.Modern roundabout is also found in earlier British use (where ‘roundabout’ is the usual term for such junctions) as an unfixed collocation; see for example quot. 1939. ΘΚΠ society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > junction of roads, paths, or tracks > [noun] > types of road junction > roundabout circus1898 rond-point1903 rotonda1908 traffic circle1914 roundabout1926 rotary1940 gyratory1983 modern roundabout1987 1939 Cheltenham Chron. 4 Mar. 4/4 Tewkesbury's chief industry seemed to be pulling up the main streets and putting them down again. This has been very true..in the erection of a modern roundabout at the Cross.] 1987 Washington Post 6 Aug. (Maryland Weekly section) 2/2 A more effective way to reduce severe accidents..would be to replace signals with modern roundabouts. 2003 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 29 Nov. m2 The modern roundabout differs from older, more poorly designed traffic circles in several ways. It is compact, usually 25 to 70 metres in diameter... The entrances to the roundabout are angled at 30 or 40 degrees so that cars are deflected away from the centre. modern slavery n. present-day exploitation of human beings for profit (likened to historical slavery), characterized by abusive and usually illegal practices such as people trafficking, enforced labour and sexual exploitation, debt bondage, and coercion of workers.Cf. slavery n. 1a(b). ΘΠ society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > enslavement thirling1535 mancipation1577 enthraldom1582 esclavishing1583 enthralment1595 enthralling1603 beslaving1641 enslavement1692 society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > system or institution slavery1728 servilism1857 chattelism1865 neoslavery1958 1990 Evening Herald (Dublin) 20 Sept. 14/5 The United Nations is concerned enough to have organised a summit meeting on child problems. Most modern slavery is economic. Children are sold as cheap labour or sexual commodities. 2003 New Yorker 21 Apr. 124/1 It proposed a federal felony charge for involuntary servitude, updating the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of slavery to take into account the forms of debt peonage and psychological coercion that characterize modern slavery. 2019 Times 25 Oct. 31/3 Research conducted by the Home Office has suggested that there are as many as 13,000 victims of modern slavery in Britain... Women are drafted into sex work while men are more commonly forced to do unpaid labour. Modern Standard Arabic n. a variety of Arabic used in the modern period for formal writing and speaking, having a grammar based chiefly on Classical Arabic but with a modernized vocabulary; cf. Classical Arabic n. at classical adj. and n. Compounds 2; abbreviated MSA. ΚΠ 1962 D. Abdo (title) A course in modern standard Arabic. 1963 Language 39 330 A problem facing non-Arabic scholars is what to call this modern..form of Arabic... I will arbitrarily select..modern standard Arabic, or MSA, as a term of reference. 1988 Guardian 19 Jan. 17 (advt.) You must..have native or near-native competence in spoken Arabic and in written modern standard Arabic. 2010 A. Darwish Transl. & News Making in Contemp. Arabic Television ii. 83 It suddenly dawned on her that Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) was not her mother tongue and that her mother tongue was Egyptian Arabic. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online December 2022). < adj.n.c1485
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