2022-03-03
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – E - epic & epoch
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Dictionary.com:
ออกเสียง epic = “EP-ik”
ออกเสียง epoch = “EP-uhk” or “especially British = EE-pok”
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions:
epic
This short word with powerful meanings
and associated meaning should not loosely
be used to refer to events, spectacles, or other matters
unless they are notable for grandeur, scope, majesty, and heroism.
It is doubtfult hat many sports events, films, TV shows, or books
should really be calledepic.
Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary:
epic & epoch
An “epoch” is a long period of time, like the Jurassic Epoch.
It often gets mixed up with “epic” in the sense of “large-scale.”
Something really big has “epic proportions,” not “epoch proportions.”
THE NEW DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL LITERACY, THIRD EDITION:
epic
A long narrative poem written in elevated style,
in which heroes of great historical or legendary importance
perform valorous deeds.
The setting is vast in scope,
covering great nations, the world, or the universe,
and the action is important to the history of a nation or people.
The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid are some great epics
from world literature,
and two great epics in English are Beowulf and Paradise Lost.
NOTES FOR EPIC
Figuratively, any task of great magnitude may be called “epic,”
as in an “epic feat” or an “epic undertaking.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Does epic mean "impressive" or just "big"?
Noun
When epic began to be used as an adjective in English
it was in specific reference to the characteristics of the type of poem
that bears the same name.
A couple of centuries passed, and the word’s meaning
came to describe other kinds of works, aside from poetry,
which had similarly grand characteristics.
More recently, epic has been found used
in a highly colloquial fashion,in a manner that is
largely synonymous with outstanding, fabulous, or impressive.
Before you pass judgment on
whether this new sense of epic is acceptable to you or not,
you might want to consider that all the words
that this sense is synonymous with have
also changed their meanings dramatically:
outstanding originally described something that projected or stuck out,
fabulous had to do with fables, and
impressive used to mean “capable of being impressed.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Choose the Right Synonym for epoch
Period, Epoch, Era, Age
mean a division of time.
Period may designate an extent of time of any length.
periods of economic prosperity
Epoch applies to a period begun or set off by some significant or striking quality, change, or series of events.
the steam engine marked a new epoch in industry
Era suggests a period of history marked by a new or distinct order of things.
the era of global communications
Age is used frequently of a fairly definite period dominated by a prominent figure or feature.
the age of Samuel Johnson
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Did you know?
Epoch comes to us, via Medieval Latin, from Greek epochē,
meaning "cessation" or "fixed point." "Epochē," in turn,
comes from the Greek verb epechein,
meaning "to pause" or "to hold back."
When "epoch" was first borrowed into English,
it referred to the fixed point used to mark the beginning of a system of chronology. That sense is now obsolete,
but today "epoch" is used in some fields (such as astronomy)
with the meaning
"an instant of time or a date selected as a point of reference."
The "an event or a time that begins a new period or development" sense
first appeared in print in the early 17th century,
and "epoch" has been applied to
defining moments or periods of time ever since.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Words We're Watching
The History of 'Epic Fail'
People have used 'fail' to mean 'failure' since the 1600s
Epic fail means “a notable, obvious, and usually public failure.”
There’s a curt efficiency in the use of fail to mean “failure”
that makes epic fail sound like the newish and hip expression that it is.
And yet, as is often the case, what is new is old:
this use of fail to mean “failure”
is actually the oldest way the word was used in English;
it survives only in the expression without fail.
An example of the positive use of fail comes from Thomas Burton’s diary in 1656:
Using epic to mean “outstanding” or “impressive”
contributes to the casual and slightly irreverent zip of epic fail,
since epic first referred to grand and formal culture:
originally, epic referred to stories.
Or, rather, to Story
—the beginnings of literature in the West trace back to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,
long narrative poems in an elevated style
that celebrate heroic achievement and
treat themes of historical, national, religious, or legendary significance
(as opposed to the briefer heroic lay, folklore and ballad forms,
or the chivalric medieval romance).
Appropriately enough, epic comes from the Greek word epos,
meaning “word,” “speech,” or “poem.”
Epos is also an English word, meaning either “epic” or
“a number of poems that treat part of an epic theme but are not formally united.”
From that original, narrow, and literary meaning,
epic evolved to mean any work of art that resembles an epic
(“a Western epic”),
and finally an action or story that could be an epic
—changing in meaning, as so many words do,
from the specific to the general over time.
More interesting, for our purposes,
is the evolution of the adjective epic,
which began as the simple modifier carrying
the original meaning of the noun (“an epic poem”),
then came to mean “extending beyond the usual or ordinary” (“epic proportions,” “epic achievement”).
Though we might associate epic fail with online writing,
Internet culture, or YouTube captions, an early use is decidedly not digital:
A website critiquing other websites seems like typical use:
I give Mashable an EPIC FAIL on this for betting Snocap could work. It seemed so promising: young music startup from Napster founder strikes deal with MySpace to sell music from millions of artists. Except that only a tiny proportion of MySpace bands made use of the stores, and the iTunes monopoly was too entrenched to be overcome.
—Pete Cashmore, "EPIC FAIL: This Year’s Turkeys," Mashable.com, 22 November 2007
But the real key to the success of epic fail
in the language is its application to many subjects:
Somehow, epic failure just doesn’t have the same ring.
