época

Época is a common noun in Spanish and Portuguese that designates a span of time distinguished by particular conditions, events, or features. It can refer to a historical period, such as la época medieval or la época de oro, as well as to a phase in a person’s life or career, as in en esa época de mi vida. The term signals not just a length of time but the characteristics and mood associated with that interval.

Etymology and usage notes: The word derives from the French époquée (époque), ultimately from Latin epōcha and Greek epochē, meaning a point or stretch of time treated as a unit. In Spanish and Portuguese, época carries a similar sense of a defined period or era, with nuances that emphasize its distinctive features rather than just chronology.

Domains of use: In historical and cultural contexts, épocas label periods with recognizable traits or movements, such as a Renaissance época or a colonial época. In everyday speech, phrases like en esa época refer to a specific time in the past. In science, particularly geology and paleontology, época translates to epoch, a formal subdivision of geological time, shorter than an era and used to denote significant intervals in Earth’s history.

Orthography and variants: Época is written with an acute accent on the first syllable in both languages and is generally lowercase unless starting a sentence. The term is closely related to era, periodo, and edad, which serve as broader or more precise time-designations in different contexts.