Topic summary
Mediaeval
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Middle Ages.
Terminology and periodisation
The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history: classical civilisation or antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern period. The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or "middle season". In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or "middle age", first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or "middle centuries", first recorded in 1625. The adjective "medieval" (or sometimes "mediaeval" or "mediæval"), meaning pertaining to the Middle Ages, derives from medium aevum.