Another newbie question #2: what is "hypermodern"?

Hey all,

I was an beginner-to-intermediate player (around 1400 USCF) in my early teens, and then stopped as I got involved in other activities.  That was (unbelievably to me) 50 years ago.  So now I'm dipping my toe back into the water, trying to learn something other than 4. e5 e4, etc.  The new scene takes getting used to (in my day, most folks, including me, were using only descriptive notation, so I'm trying to learn/get comfortable with such "new" basics as algebraic).  But enough about me . . . <g>

My question is: what is this phrase "hypermodern school"?  At first I guessed that it must mean modern scholarship of openings that is occurring now that we have 3000-rated chess engines.  But then last night I read -- on a blog entry or article here a chess.com -- a quote from the 1925 (!!) edition of MCO that described the Alekhine defense as a product of the hypermodern school.

So, if that phrase has been around 100 years . . . what in the heck does it mean?!?

Thanks!

Hypermodernism was a new school of thought developed around the 1920s by Reti and Nimzowitsch amongst others. The new idea was primarily that instead of controlling the centre by occupying it with pawns in classical fashion it was possible to instead exert long range control using pieces. This pressure on the occupied centre from afar would force concessions and then allow you to take control of the centre yourself. 

Hypermodern school refers to the breakthrough in chess when people like Alekhine, Réti and Nimzowitzch started playing openings that were based around the concept of controlling the center from the flanks, whereas before the 1920s almost everyone played chess the traditional way of controlling the center by occupying it. Openings with fianchettos and King's Indian-like setups are examples of these openings. It's basically a grouping term of anything which relates to using the flanks to control the center.

Thank you -- great answers!