epoch

Meanings

Noun

• A particular period of history, or of a person's life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable.
• A notable event which marks the beginning of such a period.
• A precise instant of time that is used as a point of reference.
• A precise instant of time that is used as a point of reference (e.g., January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC).
• One complete presentation of the training data set to an iterative machine learning algorithm; generation.
• A unit of geologic time subdividing a period into smaller parts.

Verb

• To divide (data) into segments by time period.

Origin

• From Medieval Latin epocha, from Ancient Greek ἐποχή ("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 ἐπέχω, from ἐπι- + ἔχω.