postmodern

Etymology

From post- + modern.

adj

1. (literally) Relating to what follows the modern era.
   The nearer is a fact to the temporary limits of knowledge, the more implicated becomes this regression and the more blurred ought to be statement of fact. [Percy W.] Bridgman of Harvard recently has emphasized this conclusion, but his postmodern position has as yet made small impression. 1937 May, John Q. Stewart, “An Astronomer Looks at the Modern Epoch”, in The Scientific Monthly, volume 44, number 5, page 402
   A new book by Peter Drucker, author of “The New Society” and “America's Next Twenty Years,” will be published next Wednesday by Harper. In “Landmarks of Tomorrow,” Mr. Drucker discusses the postmodern world and how it differs from the old “modern” world that began with Descartes and the empiricists. 1958-12-31, “Books–Authors”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. Of, relating to, or having the characteristics of postmodernism, especially as represented in art, architecture, literature, science, or philosophy that reacts against an earlier modernism.
   What I am objecting to is that aspect of postmodern thought that rejects the idea of any objective reality. 2001 Apr, Kristen Renwick Monroe, “Paradigm Shift: From Rational Choice to Perspective”, in International Political Science Review, volume 22, number 2, page 167 n22
   For an illustration of the differences between the traditional, positivist curriculum and the more postmodern reconceptualized curriculum, see Hanley and Montgomery. 2005 Mar, Janet R. Barrett, “Planning for Understanding: A Reconceptualized View of the Music Curriculum”, in Music Educators Journal, volume 91, number 4, page 25

noun

1. A postmodernist.
   Trajal Harrell frames his program notes for “Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church (S)” with the potentially academic question, “What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the ball scene in Harlem had come downtown to perform alongside the early postmoderns at Judson Church?” October 3, 2009, Claudia La Rocco, “Where All the World’s a Fashion Show”, in New York Times