The word "contemporary" confuses me

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I often hear people use the word "contemporary" when something is broken, and I don't understand how it is associated with something that's broken.

Once a vacuum cleaner at work wasn't working. When I asked why they often break, one of my colleagues said it's because it's contemporary.
Then last week the fare machine on the bus wasn't working, so the bus-driver had to keep telling passengers when they got on, and she kept using the word "contemporary".

I assumed contemporary meant something that breaks repeatively, but when I looked up it's definition, it was something completely different to what I thought it meant.

What is it with people using the word "contemporary" for things that are broken/don't work?

Are you sure they didn't say the antonym, "uncontemporary?"

That would make more sense, though it's still not the best word to use for that situation. Given the context, they probably meant to say old, worn-out, antiquated, outdated, obsolete, etc.

That is a rather unconventional use of the term, but I do believe they refer to it being modern in a negative sense i.e. easily manufactured but containing many plastic parts and therefore breaking easily.

Compare for instance a modern flat-screen TV with an old non-flat screen TV. A flat screen TV might last you 5 years before needing to be replaced. The same number for a non-flat screen would be closer to 25.

"Contemptuous" would be more like it, as in a deplorable, planned obsolescent piece of...work that frustrates you to death before breaking and being summarily tossed in the trash.

The person probably just meant it was typical 'modern' or present day junk. 'Contemporary' is relative to a particular time or era. Our 'contemporaries' are the people living in our own period, but Lord Nelson's 'contemporaries' were Napoleon Bonaparte, William Pitt, Lady Hamilton & Co.

Have never heard it used the way those folks you're talking about used it.

Con + temp

Con means "with", and temp means "time".

So "contemporary" can mean "modern", or "with it". Its "of the present time".

Or it can mean "in the same time period as something else". Like saying "Thomas Jefferson was a contemporary of Mozart" (ie that the two were alive at the same time in history).

Its sounds like those two were saying something to the effect that "they don't make 'em like the used to". Complaining that "because its modern its not built to last, and breaks down a lot". But even so that's a strange usage.

All these English con words confuse me. Let me quote Julia Roberts in Erin Brockowich, "How can it be conscience?"

I have a theory that the English language is the leading cause of mental breakdowns in this country.
Railroad fans and modelers often joked that they couldn't tell if Conrail was with rail or against rail, because of how syllable con might mean either with or against depending on how it is used.
(actually in that company name con was abbreviation of consolidated)

That explanations makes sense I suppose.

All I know about Con is that Pro is the opposite so the opposite of progress is congress

The prefix "con" can mean either "with", or in can mean "opposed". Two unrelated, and almost opposite meanings. Probably the two meanings are from different origins.

"conscience" means what it looks and sounds like: "with science", or "with knowledge".

In contrast there are words like "contravening", contrary, and all of the phrases with "counter" like "counter clockwise", and "counter culture", "counterrevolutionary", where con and counter mean "opposed", or "reverse".

"Congress" means a "gathering" (folks coming together), but lends itself to the above quip because a Martian could take the word to mean "reverse progress".