different between generation vs epoch

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman generacioun, Middle French generacion, and their source, Latin gener?ti?, from gener?re, present active infinitive of gener? (“to beget, generate”). Compare generate.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d???n???e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n
• Hyphenation: gen?er?a?tion

Noun

generation (countable and uncountable, plural generations)

1. The act of creating something or bringing something into being; production, creation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1832, Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, II:

     The generation of peat, when not completely under water, is confined to moist situations.

2. The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:

     So all things else, that nourish vitall blood, / Soone as with fury thou doest them inspire, / In generation seek to quench their inward fire.

   • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum:

     Generation by Copulation (certainly) extendeth not to Plants.
3. (now US, dialectal) Race, family; breed. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, First Folio 1623, I.3:

     Thy Mothers of my generation: what's she, if I be a Dogge?

4. A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or degree in genealogy, the members of a family from the same parents, considered as a single unit. [from 14th c.]

   This is the book of the generations of Adam - Genesis 5:1

   Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations - Baruch 6:3

   All generations and ages of the Christian church - Richard Hooker

5. (obsolete) Descendants, progeny; offspring. [15th-19th c.]
6. The average amount of time needed for children to grow up and have children of their own, generally considered to be a period of around thirty years, used as a measure of time. [from 17th c.]
7. A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology. [from 20th c.]
   • 2009, Paul Deital, Harvey Deital and Abbey Deital, iPhone for Programmers:

     The first-generation iPhone was released in June 2007 and was an instant blockbuster success.

8. (geometry) The formation or production of any geometrical magnitude, as a line, a surface, a solid, by the motion, in accordance with a mathematical law, of a point or a magnitude, by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc.

   the generation of a line or curve

9. A group of people born in a specific range of years and whose members can relate culturally to one another.

   Generation X grew up in the eighties, whereas the generation known as the millennials grew up in the nineties.

10. A version of a form of pop culture which differs from later or earlier versions.

    People sometimes dispute which generation of Star Trek is best, including the original and The Next Generation.

11. (television) A copy of a recording made from an earlier copy and thus further degraded in quality.
    • 2014, K. G. Jackson, G. B. Townsend, TV & Video Engineer's Reference Book

      With one-inch C format or half-inch Betacam used in the component mode, quality loss through additional generations is not such a problem. In this situation, it would be usual to make the necessary alterations while re-recording onto a third generation master […]

    • 2002, Keith Jack, Vladimir Tsatsoulin, Dictionary of Video and Television Technology (page 131)

      Each generation away from the original or master produces increased degradation in the image quality.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• first-generation
• generationer
• second-generation
• generation gap
• generation loss

Related terms

• generate

Translations

Further reading

• generation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• generation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "generation" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 140.

Anagrams

• renegation

Danish

Noun

generation c (singular definite generationen, plural indefinite generationer)

1. generation (organisms or devices born or designed at the same time)

Declension

Further reading

• “generation” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “generation” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin generatio.

Noun

generation f (plural generations)

1. generation (procreation; begetting)
2. generation (rank or degree in genealogy)

Swedish

Noun

generation c

1. a generation

Declension

Related terms

• generera
• generationsväxling
• ungdomsgeneration

References

• generation in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• generation in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

English

Alternative forms

• epocha [17th–19th c.]

Etymology

From Medieval Latin epocha, from Ancient Greek ????? (epokh?, “a check, cessation, stop, pause, epoch of a star, i.e., the point at which it seems to halt after reaching the highest, and generally the place of a star; hence, a historical epoch”), from ????? (epékh?, “I hold in, check”), from ???- (epi-, “upon”) + ??? (ékh?, “I have, hold”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?i?p?k/, /??p?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??p.?k/, /??p??k/, /?i?p?k/, /?e??p?k/

Noun

epoch (plural epochs)

1. A particular period of history, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable.

   Synonyms: age, (only in general usage) era
2. A notable event which marks the beginning of such a period.
3. (astronomy) A precise instant of time that is used as a point of reference.
4. (computing) A precise instant of time that is used as a point of reference (e.g., January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC).
5. (computing) One complete presentation of the training data set to an iterative machine learning algorithm; generation.

7. (geology) A unit of geologic time subdividing a period into smaller parts.

Related terms

• epochal
• epoche, epoché
• epochless

Translations

Verb

epoch (third-person singular simple present epochs, present participle epoching, simple past and past participle epoched)

1. (sciences, transitive) To divide (data) into segments by time period.

Further reading

• epoch in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• epoch in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• epoch at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Poche, chope, poché