Federico de Onis coined postmodernismo in the 1930s as a conservative reflux.

Evidence

So too the idea of a ‘postmodernism’ first surfaced in the 4 Hispanic inter-world of the 1930’s, a generation before its appearance in England or America. It was a friend of Unamuno and Ortega, Federico de Onis, who struck off the term postmodernismo. He used it to describe a conservative reflux within modernism itself: one which sought refuge from its formidable lyrical challenge in a muted perfectionism of detail and ironic humour, whose most original feature was the newly authentic expression it afforded women. De Onis contrasted this pattern — short-lived, he thought — with its sequel, an ultramodernismo that intensified the radical impulses of modernism to a new pitch, in a series of avant-gardes that were now creating a ‘rigorously contemporary poetry’ of universal reach. — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 11

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the original, pre-English sense of ‘postmodernismo’ — a conservative, ironic, perfectionist retreat from modernist lyricism, contrasted by De Onis with ultramodernismo.
• XREF: Directly relevant to Jameson’s later periodization and his own reading of postmodernism; useful as the counter-claim about who actually owns the term. — connects to: Postmodernism’s founding dichotomy distinguished restorationist from radicalizing impulses — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 254

Broader Connections

• Postmodernism’s founding dichotomy distinguished restorationist from radicalizing impulses #expands (0.75) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 254