From Greek 'aion' (age, lifetime, eternity), from PIE *h2ey- (vital force) — in geology, the largest division of time.
An indefinitely long period of time; in geology, the largest division of geological time, comprising two or more eras. Also spelled 'aeon.'
From Latin 'aeon' (age, eternity), borrowed from Greek 'aiṓn' (αἰών, an age, a lifetime, a long period of time, eternity, the current era). The PIE root is *h₂ey-w- or *h₂ey-u- (vital force, life-force, long life, vital energy), a root that also underlies Sanskrit 'āyus' (life, vital power, longevity), Avestan 'āyu' (life, age), Latin 'aevum' (age, a long period), and its diminutive 'aeviternus' → 'aeternus' (eternal). From Latin 'aevum' English derives 'age' (via Old French
The Greek 'aiṓn' could mean both a human lifetime and all of eternity — the word scaled from the personal to the cosmic. In Gnostic Christianity, 'Aeons' were divine beings emanated from the supreme God, spiritual entities inhabiting the space between the divine and the material. The Gnostic 'Pleroma' (fullness) was populated by paired Aeons. The word thus traveled