aeon

See also: æon

English

Alternative forms

• æon, Aeon, Æon, aion, Aion

Etymology

From Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “age, era”).

Noun

aeon (plural aeons)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, British) Alternative spelling of eon
   • 1892, Rudyard Kipling, When Earth's Last Picture is Painted (L’Envoi to 'The Seven Seas'):

     When Earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and dried,/ When the oldest colors have faded, and the youngest critic has died,/ We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an aeon or two,/Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew.

2. (Gnosticism) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.
3. (Cosmology) Each universe in a series of universes, according to conformal cyclic cosmology.

Derived terms

• light aeon

Anagrams

• eoan

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “age, eternity”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈae̯.oːn/, [ˈäe̯oːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈe.on/, [ˈɛːon]

Noun

aeōn m (genitive aeōnis); third declension

1. (Late Latin) age, eternity
2. (Late Latin) one of the Gnostic Aeons

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	aeōn	aeōnēs
genitive	aeōnis	aeōnum
dative	aeōnī	aeōnibus
accusative	aeōnem	aeōnēs
ablative	aeōne	aeōnibus
vocative	aeōn	aeōnēs

Descendants

• Spanish: eón
• French: éon
• Italian: eone
• → English: eon, aeon

References

• “aeon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• aeon in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• aeon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “aeon”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers