◙ noun 1. a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics • 时期；时代 »the Victorian epoch. 维多利亚时代。 the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something • 新纪元，新时期 [Geology] a division of time that is a subdivision of a period and is itself subdivided into ages, corresponding to a series in chronostratigraphy • [地质] 世 »the Pliocene epoch. 上新世。 [Astronomy] an arbitrarily fixed date relative to which planetary or stellar measurements are expressed • [天文] 历元
【语源】
1. early 17th cent. (in the Latin form epocha; originally in the general sense of a date from which succeeding years are numbered): from modern Latin epocha, from Greek epokhē 'stoppage, fixed point of time', from epekhein 'stop, take up a position', from epi 'upon, near to' + ekhein 'stay, be in a certain state'