the.com/modernist

means A person who champions new forms, methods, and ideas over inherited tradition, especially in art, architecture, or thought.

from Built from 'modern,' which traces to Late Latin 'modernus,' itself from 'modo' meaning 'just now.' The '-ist' suffix, from Greek '-istes,' turns an idea into a believer. So a modernist is, by the word's own bones, someone who has enlisted in the cause of 'just now' — the term gained real force in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as artists and thinkers explicitly broke from classical and traditional forms, making 'modern' not just a time but a side to take.