Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A phantom; an apparition.
- n. An image of an ideal.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A likeness; an image; a representation.
- n. A shade or specter; an apparition; hence, a confusing reflection or reflected image.
- n. One of the small floating winged figures frequently found in Greek art, especially on Greek vases. They are sometimes quite human, with wings; sometimes half human, half bird, like harpies, and of both sexes. They are supposed to represent the human soul, being similar to the Egyptian conception.
Wiktionary
- n. 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.
- n. A phantom, a ghost or elusive entity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An image or representation; a form; a phantom; an apparition.
Etymologies
- Greek eidōlon, from eidos, form; see weid- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Man is essentially an idolater, -- that is, in bondage to his imagination, -- for there is no more harm in the Greek word eidolon than in the Latin word imago.”
“But he was too much what he calls his eidolon in one book, "Monsieur le psychologue," and the Psyche he deals with is too often a skinny and spectacled creature -- not the love of Cupid and the mother of Voluptas. [”
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century
“You get to totally determine the form of your eidolon, which is neat.”
“Oh, and before I forget, this week’s Word of the Week is eidolon, which is an image, a phantom or apparition, a confusing reflection.”
“Opinions may differ as to the nature of the Ka itself – one regarding it as a ghost, another as a double, another as an "eidolon" or genius; but no Egyptologist doubts that all forms of portraiture in ancient Egypt were funerary, or that they were expressly designed for the accommodation of the Ka.”
“Mr. Le Page Renouf (32) likens it to the "eidolon" of the Greeks, the "genius" of the Romans; and Dr. Wiedemann has lately written an interesting paper to show that it was not the person, but what he calls "the personality" or "individuality" of the deceased – meaning thereby that which distinguished him in life from other men; in other words, the mental impression which was evoked when his name was mentioned.”
“It was a happy choice; my good genius, I suppose, for you see I was already fairly well read in modern science, and these old Greek philosophies set me thinking backwards, unwinding and unlearning, and getting at that eidolon which is not to be found in the mechanical heavens of this age.”
Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies
“Log in to Reply eidolon (UID#1071) on September 6th, 2009 at 10: 23 pm”
“Besides the odd d8 HD for a wizard variant, the eidolon could be draped with magic items and the summoner had a bunch of Summon Monster spell-likes with one minute per level duration (standard action to cast + cast down a level to get a dX of critters + things like empower SLA = an army to sweep a dungeon with).”
“Jason posted an update where the eidolon magic item use was clarified and the SLAs were nerfed down.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘eidolon’.
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nouns
enfleurage, fautor, mafia, haslet, chopine, sea-gate, cantillation, formicary, go-devil, Gongorism, mamzer, mazarine and 147 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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♗
euonym, eidolon, aurulent, sable-vested, aether, seraph, woodwose, je ne sais quoi, silver-tongued, schadenfreude, cri de coeur, mare's nest and 10 more...
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Literary critical terms
cathexis, catachresis, polyvocal, alterity, liminality, liminal, limn, erasure, metonymic, intertextual, intrapoetic, contradistinction and 66 more...
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Wunderkammer
A not-so-secret cache of wonderfilled words; may be mythical, magical, philosophical, oddball or just plain cool
thaumazein, anacampserote, cledonism, mirabile dictu, limen, sough, amaranthine, anamorphosis, lyribliring, lubberland, luciferous, madstone and 31 more...
lasteunuchhorn 1. a phantom; apparition.
2. an ideal. Feb 17, 2009
dimã©lion beautiful word! Nov 28, 2008
chained_bear An acquaintance of mine wrote a screenplay with this title. I always thought it was a great title... Sep 26, 2008
rolig For a citation, see Thule. Sep 2, 2008
whichbe A phantom. May 21, 2008