Medieval

Medieval \mid-EE-vuhl\ , adjective;
1. Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or in the style of the Middle Ages
2. Informal: Extremely old-fashioned; primitive

If you are a reality tv. nut like me, you can probably guess why I picked this word for today. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, last night's Celebrity Apprentice featured a challenge at Medieval Times. One of the cast members is Victoria Gotti, author and spawn of the infamous John Gotti. At some point she was asked to look up some stuff about the medieval period and she set to work looking up 'mid-evil' online. Mid-evil. You saw the part where she's an author, right? Cough*ghostwriter*cough.

Anyway, medieval was coined in English in 1827 based on Latin medium + ævum ("middle" + "age"). The word for medieval in the middle ages was, well, now.