Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Moment in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels moment as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Moment

[F. moment, L. momentum, for movimentum movement, motion, moment, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Momentum, Movement.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordmoment
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[F. moment, L. momentum, for movimentum movement, motion, moment, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Momentum, Movement.]
Selected historical definitionA minute portion of time; a point of time; an instant; as, at that very moment.
Signed record IDwebster1913-moment-noun-38717b526fac
Source locatorCIDE.M, paragraph 8699; Gutenberg eBook 665
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 665Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "moment" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[F. moment, L. momentum, for movimentum movement, motion, moment, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Momentum, Movement.]" The selected historical definition says: "A minute portion of time; a point of time; an instant; as, at that very moment."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-09-05

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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