Iron Age

See also: iron age

English

Etymology

From iron + age, in the mythological sense a calque of Latin saecula ferrea, aetas ferrea; in the archaeological sense a calque of Danish jernalder.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈʌɪən eɪdʒ/

Proper noun

Iron Age

  1. (mythology) The most recent and debased of the four or five classical Ages of Man; hence, any period characterized by wicked behavior. [from 16th c.]
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 1, member 3:
      He that shall examine this iron age wherein we live, where love is cold […] may well ask where is charity?
  2. An age characterized by the use of iron. [from 16th c.]
  3. (archaeology) A level of culture in which humans used iron and the technology of ironworking. (Estimated to have begun in Europe about 1100BC) [from 19th c.]

Coordinate terms

Translations
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See also

See also

Anagrams
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