epochlike

Epochlike is an English adjective describing something that resembles an epoch—the distinctive, often defining period in history or development. In everyday use, it signals that a feature, event, or trend appears to mark the onset of a new era or to take on the scale and significance usually associated with an epoch, without asserting that it will be permanently consequential.

Usage and nuance: The term is chiefly literary or descriptive rather than technical. It is commonly hyphenated as epoch-like or written as epochlike. It conveys resemblance or similarity to an era rather than an actual historical period. It is distinct from epochal or epoch-making, which assert that something creates a new epoch; epochlike merely suggests that something resembles such a shift.

Origins: The word is formed from the noun epoch, which originates from the Greek epochē meaning a fixed point in time, with the suffix -like denoting similarity. In practice, authors may use epochlike to describe climate shifts, technical revolutions, cultural transformations, or other developments thought to be unusually characteristic of a new phase. A note: because epoch is a technical term in fields such as geology and astronomy, epochlike should be used with care to avoid overstating the scope of the resemblance.