2. A period of time, longer or shorter, remarkable for events of great subsequent influence; a memorable
period; as, the epoch of maritime discovery, or of the Reformation. "So vast an epoch of time." F. Harrison.
The influence of Chaucer continued to live even during the dreary interval which separates from one
another two important epochs of our literary history.
A. W. Ward. 3. (Geol.) A division of time characterized by the prevalence of similar conditions of the earth; commonly
a minor division or part of a period.
The long geological epoch which stored up the vast coal measures.
J. C. Shairp. 4. (Astron.) (a) The date at which a planet or comet has a longitude or position. (b) An arbitrary
fixed date, for which the elements used in computing the place of a planet, or other heavenly body, at
any other date, are given; as, the epoch of Mars; lunar elements for the epoch March 1st, 1860.
Syn. — Era; time; date; period; age. — Epoch, Era. We speak of the era of the Reformation, when we
think of it as a period, during which a new order of things prevailed; so also, the era of good feeling,
etc. Had we been thinking of the time as marked by certain great events, or as a period in which great
results were effected, we should have called the times when these events happened epochs, and the
whole period an epoch.
The capture of Constantinople is an epoch in the history of Mahometanism; but the flight of Mahomet is
its era.
C. J. Smith. Epocha
(||Ep"o*cha) n. [L.] See Epoch. J. Adams.
Epochal
(Ep"o*chal) a. Belonging to an epoch; of the nature of an epoch. "Epochal points." Shedd.
Epode
(Ep"ode) n. [L. epodos, Gr. fr. adj., singing to, sung or said after, fr. to sing to; 'epi` upon, to
+ to sing: cf. F. épode. See Ode.] (Poet.) (a) The after song; the part of a lyric ode which follows the
strophe and antistrophe, — the ancient ode being divided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode. (b) A
species of lyric poem, invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one; as,
the Epodes of Horace. It does not include the elegiac distich.
Epodic
(E*pod"ic) a. Pertaining to, or resembling, an epode.
Eponym
(Ep"o*nym, Ep"o*nyme) n. [Cf. F. éponyme. See Eponymous.]
1. The hypothetical individual who is assumed as the person from whom any race, city, etc., took its
name; as, Hellen is an eponym of the Hellenes.
2. A name, as of a people, country, and the like, derived from that of an individual.
Eponymic
(Ep`o*nym"ic) a. Same as Eponymous.
Tablets . . . which bear eponymic dates.
I. Taylor Eponymist
(E*pon"y*mist) n. One from whom a race, tribe, city, or the like, took its name; an eponym.
Eponymous
(E*pon"y*mous) a. [Gr. 'epi` upon, to + for name.] Relating to an eponym; giving one's
name to a tribe, people, country, and the like.
What becomes . . . of the Herakleid genealogy of the Spartan kings, when it is admitted that eponymous
persons are to be canceled as fictions?
Grote.
