icon

English Online Dictionary. What means icon‎? What does icon mean?

English

Alternative forms

• eikon, ikon (only in sense of religious image)

Etymology

From Latin īcōn, from Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.kɒn/, /ˈaɪ.kən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.kɑn/
• Rhymes: (UK) -aɪkən

Noun

icon (plural icons)

1. An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion.

   Synonyms: (sometimes) idol, (pejorative) graven image

2. (religion, especially Eastern Christianity) A type of religious painting portraying a saint or scene from Scripture, often done on wooden panels.
3. (by extension) A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:exemplar, Thesaurus:model
4. (graphical user interface) A small picture that represents something.
   1. (Internet, informal) An image used to represent a user; an avatar or profile picture.
5. (linguistics, semiotics) A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons.

   Coordinate terms: symbol, index.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Further reading

• icon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• icon (computing) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• COIN, Coin, Nico, cion, coin, coni

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈiː.koːn/, [ˈiːkoːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈi.kon/, [ˈiːkon]

Noun

īcōn f (genitive īconis); third declension

1. image, artistic representation of a thing
2. (Medieval Latin) icon, a religious portrait

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms

Related terms

• īconicus
• īconismus

References

• “icon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• icon in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• icon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• icon in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[5], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English icon.

Noun

icon n (plural iconuri)

1. (computing) icon

Declension