What does contemporizing mean?
"Contemporizing" is the present participle and gerund of the verb "contemporize," which means to bring something into step with the present time — updating older works, styles, institutions, or practices so they feel current rather than dated. It appears most often in discussions of art, architecture, theatre, literature, and design, where a classic is reworked for a modern audience: a Baroque opera may be staged in modern dress, a historic hotel refurbished with contemporary interiors, or a company's branding given a fresher look. The word carries a subtle tension. To admirers, contemporizing keeps heritage alive and relevant; to critics, it can mean sanding away the very qualities that made the original distinctive. A second, narrower sense treats contemporizing as dating or aligning something with a particular era. Deriving from Latin roots meaning "with time" (com- plus tempor-), it shares ancestry with words like contemporaneous and temporal, making it part of a family of terms that measure how things relate in time.
Making something modern or in keeping with the present time by updating older styles, works, or practices.
"Architects are contemporizing the 1920s library while preserving its original facade."
Frequently used in progressive constructions ("is contemporizing") and in passive voice ("was being contemporized").
The act or process of making something contemporary or current.
"The renovation's heavy-handed contemporizing drew criticism from preservationists."
Rarely used; the plural of the gerund appears mainly in academic or critical writing discussing multiple instances of the process.
"The book surveys several contemporizings of Victorian novels across film and television."
The same Latin root that gives us 'temporary' also powers 'contemporizing' — literally pulling something into the shared 'time' of today.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of contemporizing
"Contemporize" derives from Medieval Latin "contemporarius" (from Latin "com-", meaning together, plus "temporarius", relating to time), the root that also yields English "contemporary" and "contemporaneous." The word entered English usage alongside these forms, with "contemporary" attested from around the early 17th century; "contemporize" developed later as a verb built on that adjective. Its participle and gerund form, "contemporizing," inherits this sense of bringing things into a shared or current time.
Related word forms
How contemporizing is actually used
Most often used in arts, design, architecture, publishing, and cultural criticism, where updating classic material for modern audiences is a live debate. The word carries a mildly evaluative tone: to some it signals vitality and relevance; to others it suggests compromising a work's historical character. Less common than its base form "contemporize."
Easily confused with contemporizing
"Contemporaneous" is an adjective describing things existing or occurring at the same time, whereas "contemporizing" is a verb form describing the act of making something modern.