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Dark ages

//ˈdɑːˌkeɪd͡ʒɪz// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The period of European history encompassing (roughly) 476–1000 CE.

    "There is one very real sense in which the Dark Ages were the brightest of times, and it is this: that they were times of defined and definite duties and freedoms."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages. alt-of
  3. 3
    The Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100–750 BCE).
  4. 4
    The dark ages of Cambodia (c. 1450–1863).
  5. 5
    The dark ages of Laos (c. 1707–1893).
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  1. 6
    The Dark Ages, 380 thousand to about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
  2. 7
    Any relatively primitive period of time. figuratively

    "It is clear that many linguists view connectionism as a revival of the radical empiricist approach that dominated the dark ages in psychology—the behaviourist era."

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages. alt-of, plural, plural-only
  2. 2
    plural of dark age form-of, plural

Etymology

The phrase appears in writing of the English Reformation by Richard Sibbes (1620) and by George Abbot (1624), the archbishop of Canterbury. Both authors use it to refer to the period of papal supremacy before the Reformation. The earliest citation in Oxford English Dictionary is dated 1687. Use is specific to English therefore not likely to be from Latin.

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