I was just reading this article when I stumbled upon this quote:

The most severely affected areas were in western and southern Ireland—where the Irish language was dominant—hence, in Irish, the period was contemporaneously known as an Drochshaol.

So, in the 1840s and 1850s, there was a famine in Ireland, and locals at the time called Drochshaol. Those two things happened long ago, so they aren't contemporary any more. However, they happened at the same time with one another, so that's why they are contemporaneous. That's an odd word you don't see every day, but here it's entirely justified.