eigentijdse

Eigentijdse is a Dutch adjective meaning contemporary or belonging to the present time. It is commonly used to describe art, design, literature, architecture, and cultural phenomena that are produced or perceived as part of the current era. In everyday language, it can be contrasted with historical or past-oriented forms and with terms that refer to the distant past.

Etymology and form: the word is built from eigen (own) and tijd (time), conveying the sense of something that belongs to one’s own time. In sentences, the form changes with gender and number, for example eigentijdse kunst (contemporary art), eigentijdse architectuur, or een eigentijdse stijl. The related noun is eigentijdse tijdsbeeld or eigentijdse cultuur when needed, but in practice the adjective is most common.

Usage and contexts: eigentijds is often used in cultural criticism, museology, media, and academic discourse to mark things that respond to or reflect current social conditions, technologies, and aesthetics. It can carry a normative dimension, signaling relevance or progressiveness, but it can also be employed descriptively without value judgments. While eigentijds emphasizes alignment with the present, hedendaags is another common synonym that can convey immediacy or everyday modernity, and modern can appear as a broader or more instrumental term depending on context.

Nuances and limitations: the boundary between eigentijds and other terms is subtle and context-dependent. What is considered eigentijds can shift as time passes, making the label partly evaluative and partly descriptive. In design and art discourse, the word is frequently paired with debates about authenticity, relevance, and the relationship between tradition and innovation.

See also: hedendaags, modern, contemporary art, contemporary culture.