From Greek 'epokhe' (a stoppage) — a holding point where the clock pauses and a new reckoning begins.
A particular period of time in history or a person's life, especially one marked by notable events or characteristics; a point in time from which a new period is reckoned; in geology, a subdivision of a period.
From Medieval Latin 'epocha,' from Greek 'epokhḗ' (ἐποχή, stoppage, a fixed point in time, a star's position at a given moment), from 'epékhein' (to hold upon, to pause, to check, to stop), from 'epí' (upon, at) + 'ékhein' (to hold, to have), from PIE *seǵʰ- (to hold, to have). An epoch is literally a 'holding point' — a pause in the flow of time from which reckoning begins, a moment where the clock is stopped and a new count starts. The astronomical origin is precise: Greek astronomers used 'epokhḗ' for the exact position of a celestial body at a specific moment, the fixed reference point from which all subsequent
In philosophy, 'epoché' (the Greek form of 'epoch') has a special technical meaning: the suspension of judgment, the deliberate 'holding back' from forming beliefs about the external world. The ancient Skeptics practiced epoché as a philosophical discipline. Edmund Husserl revived the concept in phenomenology, where the 'phenomenological epoché' means bracketing all