Hodierna

Hodierna is a Latin adjective that means “today’s” or “contemporary,” derived from the noun hodiernum, which literally refers to the day itself. The base form consists of the stem hodier- with the feminine nominative ending in -na, and it is the counterpart of the masculine hodiernus and the neuter hodiernum. The word is technically a third‑declension adjective, as are many derivatives that describe the present or the present time. In classical Latin, hodierna is used to contrast current events or conditions with those of the past or those that will belong to a future generation. It is often found in rhetorical passages that emphasize changing circumstances, as in a passage where a speaker contrasts the “old values” with the hodierna reality of the society.

The adjective appears frequently in Cicero’s discussions of contemporary political affairs, where he describes the hodierna situation of the Roman Republic in terms of its politics, morality, and the legal system. In the works of Martial, the word is employed in epigrams that ruminate on the fleeting nature of present pleasures and the transience of now. The term survived into medieval Latin, where it appears in theological treatises arguing for the relevance of the current age of the Church. In later East and West Germanic languages the word was sometimes adopted in legal and ecclesiastical contexts. In the English language “hodiernal” arose, meaning “of or relating to the present time,” and is occasionally used in literary or scholarly prose. Thus, hodierna remains a classic Latin adjective that signals an immediate temporal perspective, highlighting the ever‑evolving condition of the present day.