This article will look into the origins of the word medieval. The people who lived during the Middle Ages did not think of themselves as medieval, but the term was coined right after the period during the 16th century. During the 16th century the Renaissance was starting and people thought that there time was like that of the greeks and so the time in between was in the middle of the two ages from about 600-1400 BCE. They called this time medium aevum, Latin for middle ages. The people who wrote about this time considered the middle ages a time of barbarism and ignorance.
During the 19th century, the Middle ages was divided into separate time periods. These periods were the early, (600-1100) high (1100-1300), and late(1300-1400). This division put a bias on the middle time during the age, because they considered it the most important. This was true because of the beginnings of modern institutions like universities and highly regarded event, such as the Crusades. The time before the high Middle Ages was coined the “Dark Ages.” This term made the time very gloomy. The time after the high medieval was a bit harder to define because the Middle Age ended and the Renaissance started.
They solved this problem by looking at the events. If the event was modern or new, like the rise of humanism, then it was suppose to be part of the Renaissance, but if the event was old or retrograde, like knights or mystics, then it was called late medieval. This caused the term medieval to develop a bad connotation. This derogatory term is still found in today’s works sometimes to define a primitive system.

Informational help from The Making of the West by Lynn Hunn et al.