eidolon

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See also: eidôlon

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /aɪˈdəʊlən/, /aɪˈdəʊlɒn/
  • (US) IPA(key): /aɪˈdoʊlən/, /aɪˈdoʊlɑn/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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eidolon (plural eidola or eidolons)

  1. 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.
    • 1936, Henry Miller, Black Spring:
      As a species it is extinct; as an eidolon it retains its corporeality – but only if maintained in a state of equipoise.
    • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 21:
      It was not hard to forge her image, her "eidolon", in the grey gloom of the little church.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Bilocations”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 620:
      [] 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.
  2. A phantom, a ghost or elusive entity.
    • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History [], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):
      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.
  3. An unsubstantial image, spectre, phantom.

Translations

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