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Dictionary:

eon

  (ē'ŏn', ē'ən) pronunciation
also ae·on n.
  1. An indefinitely long period of time; an age.
  2. The longest division of geologic time, containing two or more eras.

[Late Latin aeōn, from Greek aiōn.]


 
 
Thesaurus: eon
also aeon

noun

    A long time: eternity, long1, year (used in plural). Informal age (used in plural), blue moon. Idioms: forever and a day, forever and ever, month of Sundays. See time.

 
Measures and Units: eon

geology The largest unit of the geochronologic scale, being often thought of as a billion (109) years (and proposed by Gamow to be exactly that
[Gamow G. Nature Vol. 219, 765 (1968)]). Deriving etymologically from ‘life’, eon, in the form of the current eon (the Phanerozoic, lasting about 570 million years), encompassed the whole fossil record when it was introduced. Preceding time was lumped together as the undifferentiated lifeless ‘pre-Cambrian’ eon of 4 billion years. Now that too is seen as including life, and is divided. The next smaller unit is era.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: eon

Long span of geologic time. In formal usage, eons are the longest portions of geologic time (eras are the second-longest). Three eons are recognized: the Phanerozoic Eon (dating from the present back to the beginning of the Cambrian Period), the Proterozoic Eon, and the Archean Eon. Less formally, eon often refers to a span of one billion years.

For more information on eon, visit Britannica.com.

 
Wikipedia: eon (geology)
For the Gnostic word, see aeon. For other uses, see eon (disambiguation).

In general usage, an eon (sometimes spelled aeon) is a period of time arbitrarily designated by humans. Geologists refer to an eon as the largest subdivision of time on the geologic time scale. For example, the Phanerozoic Eon, which is about 550 million years long, covers the period of time during which animals with hard shells that fossilize would have been abundant.

An eon is composed of several geologic eras, which in turn are composed of geologic periods, which are composed of geologic epochs. We are currently in the Phanerozoic Eon, the Cenozoic Era, the Quaternary Period, and the Holocene epoch. Formerly, only one eon existed besides the Phanerozoic: the Precambrian. More recently, the Hadean, Archean, and Proterozoic "eras" of Precambrian time have been considered eons. The geologic timescale in terms of eons, eras, and periods looks like this:

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Greek root

The English word eon is derived from the Koine Greek word aion.

Although a proposal was made in 1957 to define an aeon to be a unit of time equal to one billion years (1 Ga), the idea was not approved as a unit of scientific measure and is seldom used for a specific period of time. Its more common usage is for any lengthy or indefinite period of time. The origin is from the Greek root "aion" for "age" or "life force." A similar Latin word "aevum" for age is still present in words such as Longevity and medieval. [1]

aion Outline of Biblical Usage 1) for ever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity 2) the worlds, universe 3) period of time, age

See also

References


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
Translations: Translations for: Aeon

Dansk (Danish)
n. - uendeligt tidsrum, evighed

Nederlands (Dutch)
(een) eeuwigheid, eon, 1 miljard jaar

Français (French)
n. - éternité, temps infini, période incommensurable

Deutsch (German)
n. - Äon (Zeitraum, Weltalter)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αιώνας

Italiano (Italian)
era

Português (Portuguese)
n. - eternidade (f)

Русский (Russian)
эра, вечность

Español (Spanish)
n. - eón

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tidsålder, evighet

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
永世, 十亿年期, 万古

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 永世, 十億年期, 萬古

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 영구

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 測り知れない長年月, エオン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دهر, فتره لا نهائيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עידן, תקופה‬

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Measures and Units. A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units. Copyright © Donald Fenna 2002, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eon (geology)".  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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