a. Also erron. cot-. [f. L. contemporāne-us contemporary (f. con- together + tempus, tempor- time; cf. late L. temporāneus timely) + -OUS.]
1. Belonging to the same time or period; existing or occurring at the same time. Const. with.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Contemporaneous, Contemporary, Contemporal, that is in one and the same time or age.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Contemporaneous, living both at the same time, or in the same age. [Not in Johnson 1755.]
1758. I. Lyons, Fluxions, Pref. 6. I … consider the Ratio of the Fluxions as the same as that of the contemporaneous Increments.
1843. J. H. Newman, Miracles, 139. Strictly contemporaneous testimony.
1855. Baden Powell, Ess., 121. Instances where the phenomena are cotemporaneous.
1861. Goschen, For. Exch., 114. The high rate of interest, which is generally contemporaneous with a drain of specie.
b. Covering the same space of time.
1857. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Poets, iii. 82. The history of English poetry is contemporaneous with that of the language.
2. Originated at the same time or during the same historical or geological period; of the same age.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. p. xiii. Volcanic rocks contemporaneous with the sedimentary strata of three of the above periods. Ibid. (1863), Antiq. Man, 15. Tumuli of the stone period believed to be contemporaneous with the mounds.
1874. Parker, Goth. Archit., I. iii. 80. Plain groined vaults without ribs … contemporaneous with the barrel vaults.
