different between phantom vs eidolon

English

Alternative forms

• fantom (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English fantom, fantum, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma (“an apparition, specter; (in Late Latin also) appearance, image”), from Ancient Greek ???????? (phántasma, “phantasm, an appearance, image, apparition, specter”), from ??????? (phantáz?, “I make visible”). Doublet of phantasm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fænt?m/

Noun

phantom (plural phantoms)

1. A ghost or apparition.
2. Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; an image that appears only in the mind; an illusion or delusion.
3. (bridge) A placeholder for a pair of players when there are an odd number of pairs playing.
4. (medical imaging) A test object. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• ghost
• See also Thesaurus:ghost

Derived terms

• phantom limb
• phantom pain

Related terms

• fantasy

Translations

Adjective

phantom (not comparable)

1. Illusive.
2. Fictitious or nonexistent.

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “phantom”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Hampton

English

Alternative forms

• eidôlon
• idolon

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????? (eíd?lon, “figure, representation”), from ????? (eîdos, “sight”), from ???? (eíd?, “I see”). Doublet of idol and idolum.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /a??d??l?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /a??do?l?n/

Noun

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.
   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992, p. 21:

     It was not hard to forge her image, her "eidolon", in the grey gloom of the little church.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 697:

     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

     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.

Translations