My character is from 1314, moved inadvertently to the present. If someone refers to the medieval period, will he know they're talking about his time?
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enTWINed, working title, 07
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160,056 / 50,000
Feb 25, 2008 - 14 35
I would say no. According to the online entymology dictionary:
http://www.etymonline.com/
the word medieval was only invented in the 1800s, so it would be a completely new word for him, someone would have to explain what it meant.
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Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
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8,747 / 50,000
Feb 26, 2008 - 05 08
The term 'medieval' literally means 'of the middle age', meaning the age between the classical age of Rome, and the modern age. As far as medieval people were concerned, they were living in the modern age, so the term would have no meaning to them.
50,088 / 50,000
Feb 26, 2008 - 18 49
Since he won't know the language at all, I assume he'll learn what medieval means as he acquires it.
Makes you wonder, though, what they'll be calling *this* time in a few hundred years, doesn't it?
4,468 / 50,000
Mär 11, 2008 - 20 41
From Wikipedia:
"The earliest recorded use of the English word "medieval" was in 1827." (from the article on "Dark Ages")
The way people define "ages" keeps shifting. Actually, medieval now encompasses a different span of time than it used to.
So no, even if your 14th-century character understood modern English, he most likely wouldn't identify himself with that word unless somebody specifically defined it for him. Especially if he is illiterate (which would include 95% of the human race in the 1300s) or doesn't know what year it is.
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Breeder of Plot Wolverines
18,120 / 50,000
Apr 17, 2008 - 11 29
Petrarch (b. 1304 - d. 1374) was the first to come up with the concept of the "Middle Ages." He argued that classical Greece and Rome were the Golden Age, which was then followed by the Dark Ages. He himself felt that he was living in some "Middle Age" that would eventual come around to a rebirth of the classical Golden Age. Because of Petrarch's classification of European history as being in a "Middle Age" in the 14th century, Italian humanists of the late 14th and then 15th century's began to think of their own era as the "Renaissance" or rebirth of classical antiquity.
It is not impossible, then, to think that a character in 1314 might think of him/herself as living in a "Middle Age" or a medieval period. That is, a middle age that is somewhere between the Golden Age of the past and the theoretical Golden Age of the future.
HTH!
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