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WOTD – 21 January 2006
Alternative forms
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aeon(Commonwealth)
æon(dated)
Etymology
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From Latinaeon, from Ancient Greekαἰών(aiṓn, “age, era”).
Pronunciation
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(US, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈi.ɑn/, /ˈeɪ.ɑn/
Audio (US):
(file)
(UK) IPA(key): /ˈiː.ən/, /ˈiː.ɒn/, /ˈeɪ.ɒn/
Homophone: Ian
(General Australian)
Audio (General Australian):
(file)
Rhymes: -iːɒn, (UK)-iːən
Noun
[edit]English Wikipedia has an article on:eonWikipedia
eon (plural eons)
Eternity, the duration of the universe.
An immeasurably or indefinitely long period of time.
(US, informal, hyperbolic) A long period of time. It’s been eons since we last saw each other.
1990, Judith Martin, Miss Manners’ Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium (A Fireside Book), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 453:Traditionally, a luncheon is a lunch that takes an eon.
(astronomy, geology) A period of one billion (short scale, i.e. 1,000,000,000) years.
2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 November 2012, page 23:We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
(geology) The longest geochronologic unit, being a period of hundreds of millions of years; subdivided into eras.
(Gnosticism, usually spelled aeon or æon) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.
Hyponyms
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Archean eon
Hadean eon
Phanerozoic eon
Proterozoic eon
supereon
temporal æon
Derived terms
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eonian
eonic
geon
light eon
Related terms
[edit] English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ey- (1 c, 1 e)
