OED definitions
modernity, n.
1. a. The quality or condition of being modern; modernness of character or style.
1635 G. HAKEWILL Apol. V. 192 Yea but I vilifie the present times, you say, whiles I expect a more flourishing state to succeed; bee it so, yet this is not to vilifie modernitie, as you pretend. 1782 H. WALPOLE Let. to W. Cole 22 Feb. (1858) VIII. 161 Now that the poems [sc. Chatterton's] have been so much examined, nobody (that has an ear) can get over the modernity of the modulations. 1796 S. PEGGE Anonymiana (1809) 429 Macrobius is no good author to follow in point of Latinity, partly on account of his modernity, and partly of his foreign extraction. 1883 Harper's Mag. Mar. 537/1 A very old inn, that seemed suffering the first pangs of being galvanized back to life and modernity. 1888 Athenæum 31 Mar. 401/3 Those unlucky stumblings into modernity which some archaizing translators do not avoid. 1904 M. SINCLAIR Div. Fire 415 My dear fellow, modernity simply means democracy. And when once democracy has been forced on us there's no good protesting any longer. 1923 National Geogr. Mag. Apr. 395/2 In their modernity..no other stations in the world claim as much interest from the public generally as the Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations, in New York. 1971 S. HOWATCH Penmarric (1972) V. i. 551, I have a series of blurred memories of a London blazing with modernitycocktails, nightclubs, jazz bands. 1989 Mod. Painters Autumn 74/1 A painter was free to place more or less stress on modernity and innovation without having his creative virility impugned.
b. spec. An intellectual tendency or social perspective characterized by departure from or repudiation of traditional ideas, doctrines, and cultural values in favour of contemporary or radical values and beliefs (chiefly those of scientific rationalism and liberalism). The earlier quots. illustrate the development of this sense from mainly critical or depreciative use of sense 1a. Cf. MODERNISM n. 3, 4.
[1900 Q. Rev. Apr. 321 Mere modernity..involved the complete jettison of every restraining principle in language, metre, and morals. 1906 Mind 15 402 There is a wholesome absence of modernity in Mr. Galloway's refusal..to make religion (or philosophy, for that matter) geo-centric. 1918 Polit. Sci. Q. 33 122 To say that it exalts medievalism, deplores modernity, and lures the reader on from sparkling epigram to startling if at times strained paradox, is merely to report that Chesterton is still Chesterton.] 1931 Jrnl. Philos. 28 268 A last chapter upholds the validity of a religious attitude against the ‘idols of modernity’, that is, against the ‘reduction-fallacies’ that spring from an unwarranted use of the results of the natural sciences. 1958 J. MCAULEY End Modernity 57 In the nineteenth century the Christian residues..are systematically expelled under the action of naturalism, scientism and materialism, so that in the twentieth century ‘modernity’ stands forth in brutal self-confidence as atheist, technolatrous, ruthless totalitarianism. 1986 N. DE LANGE Judaism (1991) ii. 33 This quest for compromise between tradition and modernity may be seen as characteristic of Conservative Judaism, which is inherently pragmatic, and strives to avoid the dogmatism of the more extreme movements. 1990 Marxism Today Feb. 21/3 Between socialism and modernity there was no quarrel.
2. Something that is modern; a modern example of something.
1753 H. WALPOLE Corr. Sept. (1973) XXXV. 154 But here is a modernity, which beats all antiquities for curiosity. 1884 Harper's Mag. Dec. 80/1 After he had..arranged himself in these modernities. 1909 Daily Chron. 23 Mar. 3/3 ‘The White Slave’ will be touring the country when the last of the fresh modernities at the Goupil Salon is banished to the dark corner against the wardrobe in the second best spare bedroom. 1953 R. FULLER Second Curtain iv. 61 The quart bottle of beer, the Penguin greenback, incongruous modernities.
1. a. The quality or condition of being modern; modernness of character or style.
1635 G. HAKEWILL Apol. V. 192 Yea but I vilifie the present times, you say, whiles I expect a more flourishing state to succeed; bee it so, yet this is not to vilifie modernitie, as you pretend. 1782 H. WALPOLE Let. to W. Cole 22 Feb. (1858) VIII. 161 Now that the poems [sc. Chatterton's] have been so much examined, nobody (that has an ear) can get over the modernity of the modulations. 1796 S. PEGGE Anonymiana (1809) 429 Macrobius is no good author to follow in point of Latinity, partly on account of his modernity, and partly of his foreign extraction. 1883 Harper's Mag. Mar. 537/1 A very old inn, that seemed suffering the first pangs of being galvanized back to life and modernity. 1888 Athenæum 31 Mar. 401/3 Those unlucky stumblings into modernity which some archaizing translators do not avoid. 1904 M. SINCLAIR Div. Fire 415 My dear fellow, modernity simply means democracy. And when once democracy has been forced on us there's no good protesting any longer. 1923 National Geogr. Mag. Apr. 395/2 In their modernity..no other stations in the world claim as much interest from the public generally as the Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations, in New York. 1971 S. HOWATCH Penmarric (1972) V. i. 551, I have a series of blurred memories of a London blazing with modernitycocktails, nightclubs, jazz bands. 1989 Mod. Painters Autumn 74/1 A painter was free to place more or less stress on modernity and innovation without having his creative virility impugned.
b. spec. An intellectual tendency or social perspective characterized by departure from or repudiation of traditional ideas, doctrines, and cultural values in favour of contemporary or radical values and beliefs (chiefly those of scientific rationalism and liberalism). The earlier quots. illustrate the development of this sense from mainly critical or depreciative use of sense 1a. Cf. MODERNISM n. 3, 4.
[1900 Q. Rev. Apr. 321 Mere modernity..involved the complete jettison of every restraining principle in language, metre, and morals. 1906 Mind 15 402 There is a wholesome absence of modernity in Mr. Galloway's refusal..to make religion (or philosophy, for that matter) geo-centric. 1918 Polit. Sci. Q. 33 122 To say that it exalts medievalism, deplores modernity, and lures the reader on from sparkling epigram to startling if at times strained paradox, is merely to report that Chesterton is still Chesterton.] 1931 Jrnl. Philos. 28 268 A last chapter upholds the validity of a religious attitude against the ‘idols of modernity’, that is, against the ‘reduction-fallacies’ that spring from an unwarranted use of the results of the natural sciences. 1958 J. MCAULEY End Modernity 57 In the nineteenth century the Christian residues..are systematically expelled under the action of naturalism, scientism and materialism, so that in the twentieth century ‘modernity’ stands forth in brutal self-confidence as atheist, technolatrous, ruthless totalitarianism. 1986 N. DE LANGE Judaism (1991) ii. 33 This quest for compromise between tradition and modernity may be seen as characteristic of Conservative Judaism, which is inherently pragmatic, and strives to avoid the dogmatism of the more extreme movements. 1990 Marxism Today Feb. 21/3 Between socialism and modernity there was no quarrel.
2. Something that is modern; a modern example of something.
1753 H. WALPOLE Corr. Sept. (1973) XXXV. 154 But here is a modernity, which beats all antiquities for curiosity. 1884 Harper's Mag. Dec. 80/1 After he had..arranged himself in these modernities. 1909 Daily Chron. 23 Mar. 3/3 ‘The White Slave’ will be touring the country when the last of the fresh modernities at the Goupil Salon is banished to the dark corner against the wardrobe in the second best spare bedroom. 1953 R. FULLER Second Curtain iv. 61 The quart bottle of beer, the Penguin greenback, incongruous modernities.
posted by gradylove at 10:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home