means Relating to the Middle Ages, the era of European history roughly between the fall of Rome and the start of the Renaissance — and, loosely, anything that feels old-fashioned, brutal, or backward.

from From the Latin 'medium aevum,' meaning 'the middle age' — 'medius' (middle) plus 'aevum' (age, lifetime, era). The term is younger than the period it names: scholars looking back coined 'medieval' in the 19th century to label the centuries they saw as a 'middle' span sandwiched between classical antiquity and their own enlightened times. 'Aevum,' incidentally, is a distant cousin of English 'aye' (ever) and 'eon.'