From Latin 'aetas' (lifetime) via French, sharing a root with 'eon,' 'eternal,' and 'medieval.'
Definition
The length of time a person has lived or a thing has existed; also, a distinct period of history.
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Old French13th centurywell-attested
From OldFrench 'aage' (modern French 'âge'), contracted from Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, a suffix-extended form of Latin 'aetās' (age, lifetime, generation, era), which is itself a contraction of 'aevitās,' from 'aevum' (lifetime, eternity, an age of the world). ThePIEroot is *h₂eyw- (vital force, life force, long life, eternity), one of the deepest temporal concepts in the Indo-European inheritance. From *h₂eyw- came Latin 'aevum' (a span of time, eternity — whence 'medieval,' literally 'middle age,' and 'primeval,' 'of the first age'), Greek 'aiōn' (a lifetime, an era, an age — whence
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Theword 'age' is secretly related to 'eon,' 'eternal,' and 'medieval.' All descend from PIE *h₂eyw- (lifetime). Latin 'aevum' gave 'medieval' (literally 'middle age'), Greek 'aiōn' gave 'eon/aeon,' and Latin 'aeternus' (from 'aeviternus,' meaning 'of lasting age') gave 'eternal.' The concept
— one's personal age (how long one has lived) and a historical age (the Bronze Age, the Age of Reason). The Vulgar Latin suffix *-āticum (whence French '-age') became one of the most productive noun-forming endings in English: 'voyage,' 'passage,' 'marriage,' 'courage,' 'language' — all from the same suffix that shaped 'age' itself. Key roots: *h₂eyw- (Proto-Indo-European: "vital force, lifetime, eternity").