my professor has requested us to find out where the word "moment" evoled from. the moment of a force. the edimology of it. i have tried to locate this, and have since not found it. any suggestions?
moment -
1340, "very brief portion of time, instant," in moment of time, from O.Fr. moment, from L. momentum "movement, moving power," also "instant, importance," contraction of *movimentum, from movere "to move" (see move). Some (but not O.E.D.) explain the sense evolution of the L. word by notion of a particle so small it would just "move" the pointer of a scale, which led to the transf. sense of "minute time division." Sense of "importance, 'weight' " is attested in Eng. from 1522. Momentous formed 1656 in Eng., to carry the sense of "important" while momentary (1526) kept the meaning "of an instant of time." Phrase never a dull moment first recorded 1889 in Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat." Phrase moment of truth first recorded 1932 in Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon," from Sp. el momento de la verdad, the final sword-thrust in a bull-fight.
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This is the Online Etymology Dictionary.
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