Abstract

As the italicization of the words in my title indicates, my concern this morning is with the terms medieval and Middle Ages, not with the period itself. Members of the Medieval Academy of America, whether historians, philologists, iconographers, Byzantinists, or specialists in any of the other disciplines that enrich our Academy, will all presumably have a common interest in the terms by which our subject matter is known to the world at large. I propose to begin by offering some observations on the pronunciation and spelling of our terms and then turn to the matter of the origin of medieval and Middle Ages and the puzzling question as to why English has a plural noun Middle Ages whereas other major European languages seem to have a singular — moyen âge, edad media, Mittelalter, medioevo, and so on. Finally, I shall give some attention to the meaning and popular usage of terms like medieval and Middle Ages in the various languages of Europe and shall try to draw some conclusions from this as to the status our subject has in the world community