Modern

When did things start being modern? How long do things stay modern? How modern is modern?
 
The word modern has its origins in words meaning ‘the usual way things are done now in a routine or certain way’. To say that something is modern is to say that this is now the way it is. In Shakespearean English, the word modern had the sense of the everyday, the ordinary, the commonplace.
 
The adjective modern, meaning ‘now existing’, appears in English around 1500. Modern, meaning ‘pertaining to present or recent times’ is from the 1580s. The word modern has its origins in Latin modernus (modern; just now, in a certain manner) and the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root med- (to take appropriate measures).
 
In historical terms, modern means not ancient or medieval (which is interesting, given that Latin modernus is an ancient word!). By 1808, modern meant not antiquated or obsolete, but in harmony with present ways.
 
The term ‘modern English’ is from around 1600. The term ‘modern languages’ is from the 1690s. Modernism, as a deviation from the ancient and classical manner, is from 1737. Modern languages, as a field of study, is from 1821. Modern art, in contrast to ancient or traditional art, is from 1807. By 1897, a person who was modern was ‘up to date’. Modern dance is from 1912. Modernism in art is from 1924. ‘Modern’ household conveniences are from 1926. Modern jazz is from 1954.
 
Things seem to have been ‘modern’ for a long time!
 
What about ‘post-modern’ (from 1919) or ‘post-modernism’ (from 1977)? The term post-modern architecture is from the 1940s. Post-modern in relation to the arts is from the 1960s. The term post-modernism has been defined as “the contemporary movement of thought which rejects … the possibility of objective knowledge” and is therefore “skeptical of truth, unity, and progress” (Online Etymological Dictionary, postmodernism).
 
In brief, it would seem that to be modern is to be content with the ways things are. To be post-modern is to live in a world in which uncertainty and ambiguity appear to be usual and ordinary.
 
Since ancient times, things have been modern. Every now and then over the centuries, dare I say, that forms of post-modernism have nudged people into new forms of modernism.
 
How about neo-modern? Or, why not just stick with modern?!
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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