Do you think people in the Romantic era used the term "romantic"?

Question

As in "you brought me flowers. How romantic!"

Answer 1

Of course they did, but they didn't call their era "the Romantic era". It has to be remembered the romantic was at first a adjective and similarly an adverb, to describe what was going on. It didn't become the key noun to Romantic until later. Just as the people in the Middle Ages used the word middle, they had no clue it was to become the middle ages, until there was a later ages. World War I was the Great War, until there was a second war, etc. No one can appropriately define their own era until a century or more down the road. Are we at the beginning or end of civilization? We won't know for ages to come.

Answer 2

yes, they did..Romantic with a capital "r" and romantic without have no connection...one denotes a specific artistic movement and the other denotes love and affection