The word
aeon , also spelled
eon and
æon (
in American English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timeless" or "for
eternity". It is a
Latin transliteration from the
koine Greek word (
ho aion), from the archaic (
aiwon). In
Homer it typically refers to life or lifespan. Its latest meaning is more or less similar to the
Sanskrit word
kalpa and
Hebrew word
olam. A
cognate Latin word
aevum or
aeuum (cf. ) for "age" is present in words such as
longevity and
mediaeval.
