eidolon
/aɪˈdoʊlən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.17 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An image or representation of an idea; a representation of an ideal form; an apparition of some actual or imaginary entity, or of some aspect of reality.
noun
An unsubstantial image; a spectre; a phantom.
Example Sentences
- "As a species it is extinct; as an eidolon it retains its corporeality – but only if maintained in a state of equipoise."
- "It was not hard to forge her image, her "eidolon", in the grey gloom of the little church."
- "[…]Kit was sitting up staring into the dark at this eidolon, inelegantly turned out contrary to a whole raft of public-decency statutes, which had come monitory and breathing in to violate Kit's insomnia."
- "In all my years of adventuring among the primitives and wild men of the world, I have never set eyes on a man who looked so savage, so elemental, so full of primal rage as the being that now climbed from the coffin; naked, sword in hand, its long black hair flowing behind it, its body covered head to toe in tattooes of eldritch imagery and ancient languages that resembled no script written by man. Sherman, the American general, is said to have told his enemies, begging for mercy, that they may as well appeal against the thunderstorm. What I beheld before me, I thought, was the very eidolon of the storm."
- "Was Philippe d'Orleans seen, this day, 'in the Bois de Boulogne, in grey surtout;' waiting under the wet sere foliage, what the day might bring forth? Alas, yes, the Eidolon of him was,—in Weber's and other such brains."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *wéydos Proto-Hellenic *wéidos Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos) Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon)der. English eidolon From Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “figure, representation”), from εἶδος (eîdos, “sight”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”). Doublet of aidoru, idol, and idolum and related to idea.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: εἴδωλον
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /aɪˈdoʊlən/
- British English: /aɪˈdəʊlən/