Eidolon

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ʌɪˈdəʊlÉ™n/
• US IPA: /aɪˈdoÊŠlÉ‘n/

Alternative forms

• eidôlon

Origin

From Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eidōlon, "figure, representation"), from εἶδος (eidos, "sight"), from εἴδω (eidō, "I see").

Full definition of eidolon

Noun

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 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.