Postclassical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Belonging to or characteristic of the historical era that followed the end of classical Greek and Roman civilization
2. Of or pertaining to the time period succeeding the classical age of Greece and Rome
3. Relating to the cultural, historical, or artistic developments that came after the classical period ended

Etymology: "Postclassical" is a compound of the Latin prefix "post-", meaning "after", and "classical", so its literal sense is "after the classical". The word is a modern scholarly coinage, built on the same classical stock as the word it follows. The "classical" half traces back through "classic" and the Latin "classicus", which referred to a member of the highest Roman tax class and was later applied to the finest writers, and then to the period of Greek and Roman antiquity. The "post-" element is the Latin "post", which in English prefixes has long meant "after in time" or "behind in position", as in "postwar" or "postpone". Attaching it to "classical" produces a period label rather than a description of any text or style. Scholars use "postclassical" for the era of Greek or Roman culture that followed the classical age, and in medieval studies it marks the period after Antiquity, where the adjective marks a temporal boundary instead of a judgement of quality.

Synonyms: post-classical, medieval, late antique

Antonyms: classical, ancient