name, slang ·Moderate ·College level
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"Holonyms: Quaternary (current period), Age of Man (dated)"
"Holonyms: Holocene (current epoch) < Quaternary (current period), Age of Man (dated)"
"Holonyms: Quaternary (current period), Age of Man (dated)"
A proposed but rejected geological epoch, in which the effect of human activities on the global environment has disrupted the natural variability of the Holocene, ending the Holocene. (It was rejected as formal scientific nomenclature in 2024 owing to not meeting a bar for how a geological epoch is formally defined.)
Common synonyms include: anthropogenic, anthropogenic age, anthropogenic era, era of humanity, era of humans, human caused.
Holonyms: Quaternary (current period), Age of Man (dated)
Pronounced /ˈæn.θɹə.pəˌsiːn/.
From a combination of anthropo- + -cene modeled on Holocene, Pleistocene, and similar. First attested in the 1960s in the translations of Russian-language scientific articles, possibly with a different meaning. Supposedly coined independently in the 1980s by American biologist Eugene Stoermer and later popularized by Dutch atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen in 2000.