Etymologically
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αἰών

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ai̯.ɔ̌ːn/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ɛˈon/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /eˈon/[1]

Forms

αἰών (aiṓn) m or f (genitive αἰῶνος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vital force, life, lifetime”), through an earlier *αἰϝών (aiwṓn), an n-stem also seen in the old locative αἰέν (aién, “always”).[2][1][3] Beside it stood an s-stem, in the shortened accusative ⟨αἰῶ⟩ and in αἰές (aiés) and αἰεί (aieí, “always”).[2][3]

A neuter u-stem is found in Sanskrit आयु (ā́yu) and Avestan āiiu, “lifetime”.[2] Latin made a thematic noun, Latin aevum.[2][4] Other cognates are Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 (aiws, “time”) and English aye.[4][1] An old derivative of the same root with the sense “having vital strength” is seen in Latin iuvenis, Sanskrit युवन् (yúvan, “young man”) and Lithuanian jáunas (“young”).[2]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from ἄειν (áein, “to breathe”), since the living breathe, or from ἀεί (aeí) and ὤν (ṓn), “always being”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the life of a person, and its span: the Iliad says of a dying warrior that his lifetime was short (4.478), and pairs it with the soul as what leaves a man at death (16.453).[6][7] Babiniotis takes “vital force” as its original sense in that passage.[8] A Homeric hymn uses it for the spinal marrow, perhaps as the seat of life.[7]

Semantic evolution

From “lifetime” the word passed to one's lot in life (Sophocles, Euripides), an age or generation, and posterity, “the age to come” (Demosthenes).[7] It also came to mean a long space of time: ἀπ’ αἰῶνος “from of old” is in Hesiod's Theogony (609), and δι’ αἰῶνος “for ever” in Aeschylus.[7][9] Aristotle explains the word as the term that comprises the span of each one's life.[7] Euripides personifies Aion as a son of Chronos.[7]

In the Septuagint it is the usual rendering of Biblical Hebrew עולם (ʿôlām), in phrases such as εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα “for ever” and εἰς αἰῶνα αἰῶνος “for ever and ever”.[10] The New Testament contrasts “this age”, the present world, with the one to come, and the plural “the ages” means eternity.[7][9] Late Greek writers used it for a thousand years.[8][5] It was borrowed into Coptic ⲁⲓⲱⲛ (aiōn), attested from about AD 300.[11]

It survives as Modern Greek αιώνας (eónas), whose senses “century” and “age, era” were modelled on French siècle and âge.[12] English eon (1640s) comes from it through Latin aeon.[13]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for a person's lifetime and life.[6][7]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod has ἀπ’ αἰῶνος, “from of old” (Theogony 609).[7][9][4]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides personifies Aion as a son of Chronos.[7][4]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle defines it as the span that comprises each one's life.[7][4]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it to render Hebrew ʿôlām, “eternity”.[10]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of “this age”, as opposed to the one to come (Matthew 13:22).[7][9]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as αιώνας, also “century”.[12]
  • 1640s – English borrows it as eon.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lifetime, life.[7][6]
  2. (Homer) The vital force, the life that leaves a person at death.[6][8]
  3. One's lot, destiny.[7]
  4. An age, a generation; posterity.[7]
  5. A long space of time, eternity; ἀπ’ αἰῶνος “of old”, δι’ αἰῶνος “for ever”.[7][9][10]
  6. (New Testament) An age, an epoch.[7][9] “This age”, the present world, as opposed to the one to come.[7][9]
  7. (personified) Aion, a divine being, called a son of Chronos.[7]
  8. (Pythagorean) The number ten.[7]
  9. The spinal marrow.[7]

Word family

  • ἀεί (āeí)
  • αἰεί (aieí)
  • αἰέν (aién)
  • αἰώνιος (aiṓnios)
  • αἰωνίζω (aiōnízō)
  • αἰωνιότης (aiōniótēs)
  • αἰώνισμα (aiṓnisma)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ a b Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  10. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  11. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com