era

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈɪə.rə/, US /ˈɪr.ə/, /ˈer.ə/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin aera (“a number used as a basis of reckoning; an epoch from which time is reckoned”), also ēra,^[2][3][4] perhaps influenced by French ère,^[3] probably the same word as Latin aera (“counters used for calculation”), the plural of aes (“brass, copper, money”) used as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4] It is related to ore.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The starting point from which a series of years is reckoned: 1615 in the OED, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster, spelled aera;^[6][3][5] the spelling era is from 1716.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The use of the Latin word in chronology is said to have begun in 5th-century Spain, where the local era, the aera Hispanica, began in 38 BC.^[2][3] Other ancient eras included those of Actium (31 BC) and the Olympiads (776 BC).^[2] “A system of chronological notation” is from the 1640s,^[2][6] and “a historical period” from 1741,^[2][6] as in the American Era of Good Feelings (1817), which, Etymonline remarks, was anything but.^[2][6] A period in a person's life is from 1796,^[6] and in geology one of the longest divisions of time.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 1615 – the starting point of a reckoning.^[6][3]
• 1640s – a system of dating.^[2]
• 1716 – the spelling era.^[2][3]
• 1741 – a historical period.^[2][6]
• 1796 – a period in a person's life.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A period of time reckoned from a particular date or event: the Christian era.
2. A period marked by particular circumstances, events or persons: the Victorian era.
3. An event or date that begins such a period; an epoch.
4. In geology, one of the longest divisions of time, made up of periods.

Related words

• ore
• epoch
• age
• eon

Usage notes

ERA is also an abbreviation of earned run average in baseball and of the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States.^[9][8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press