Aeon

The English “Aeon” derives from the Greek word αἰών (aiṓn). Aἰών is a masculine word in the third declination with a few meanings. Aἰών early on meant simply “lifetime” or “the length of life of a man.” In time it took on the meaning of “generation” or what Anthropologists would call an “Age Grade.” Those people born within a certain proximity were thought to share certain features, which could be thought of as being held together by their αἰών. Popularly people use a version of this idea when they speak about “that 60s stuff” or “that 90s stuff.” This also led to an expanded meaning of a long duration or an epoch. It also means “The Current World” or the world the speaker lives in.

Greek is a part of the language family known as Indo-European. Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed language used by Linguists to present likely origins for the word developed in the existing Indo-European Languages. The proposed Proto-Indo-European word, which is the progenitor of the current word “Aeon,” is said to be *h₂eyu-, or h₂eyw- meaning “Vital Force,” “Life,” “Age,” and “Eternity.” This same root leads the Latin “aevum’ and “aeternus” and in English to the word “ever.”

Aἰών appears in the Homeric Epics in the early sense of “Lifespan.” It appears in the Old and New Testament Greek, with its implication of “Eternity” being the standard translation. Plato uses αἰών to mean the “Eternal World” or the Realm of the Forms. In this, it shares an English translation with the Hebrew word עולם “olam,” which has a similar interplay of the ideas of “World,” “Age,” and “Eternity.”