icon

icon

See also: iĉon, Icon, and ICON

English

A religious icon

A GUI icon representing deleted items

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.kɑːn/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: (UK) -aɪkən

Noun

icon (plural icons)

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

   Synonyms: 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.
   • 1986 December 22, “‘Weeping Virgin’ Icon Draws Throngs To Chicago”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     Last week the Archdiocese sent emmissaries to investigate the icon and decided that the tears were not a hoax, Father Koufos said.

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

   That man is an icon in the business; he personifies loyalty and good business sense.

   • 1981 May 31, Robert Palmer, “Two Icons of Rock Music”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     Only a handful of rock musicians have become genuine icons - larger-than-life symbolic figures whose personal triumphs and vicissitudes seem to mirror the ups and downs of rock as a whole, and sometimes of the society that nurtures it. Often, rock icons become the objects of personality cults that tend to overshadow their musical accomplishments.

   • 1987 December 23, “Barbie: Doll, Icon Or Sexist Symbol?”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     Barbie is viewed as an icon of American culture in her new biography, Barbie: Her Life and Times (Crown, $25), written by Billy Boy, a clothing and jewelry designer in Paris.

4. (graphical user interface) A small picture that represents something.

   Click the loudspeaker icon to configure audio settings.

   • 1985 September 15, Erik Snadberg-Diment, “Number Crunching on the Macintosh”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     The program's most quintessentially Macintoshian feature, one as yet unique among spreadsheets, is its icon bar, which resides at the top of the screen just below the standard menu bar. It contains 21 icons, each of which allows the user to perform a specified function with but a few clicks of the mouse.

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

• aniconic, aniconism
• iconism

Related terms

• iconic
• iconoclasm, iconoclast, iconoclastic
• iconify
• iconography
• iconstasis
• iconolatry

Translations

image

Arabic: قُونَة‎ f (qūna), أَيْقُونَة‎ f (ʔayqūna) Armenian: պատկեր (hy) (patker) Belarusian: во́браз (be) m (vóbraz) Bulgarian: изображе́ние (bg) n (izobražénie) Catalan: icona (ca) f Cornish: ikon m Danish: ikon c Dutch: icoon (nl) f Esperanto: piktogramo Finnish: ikoni (fi), symboli (fi) French: icône (fr) f Galician: icona f German: Bild (de) n Greek: εικόνα (el) f (eikóna) Hungarian: ikon (hu) Irish: íocón m Italian: icona (it) f Maori: ata (mi), ata iti Norman: icône f Norwegian: Bokmål: ikon (no) m or n Nynorsk: ikon m or n Polish: ikona (pl) f Portuguese: ícone (pt) m Russian: изображе́ние (ru) n (izobražénije), о́браз (ru) m (óbraz) Scottish Gaelic: ìomhaigh m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: икона f Roman: ikona (sh) f Slovak: ikona (sk) f Slovene: ikona (sl) f Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m Swedish: ikon (sv) c, bild (sv) c Ukrainian: зобра́ження n (zobrážennja), о́браз (uk) m (óbraz) Vietnamese: biểu tượng (vi) Welsh: eicon m Yup'ik: ikuunaq

religious painting

Albanian: ikonë (sq) f Arabic: قُونَة‎ f (qūna), أَيْقُونَة‎ f (ʔayqūna) Armenian: սրբապատկեր (hy) (srbapatker), պատկեր (hy) (patker) Asturian: iconu m Azerbaijani: ikona Bashkir: тәре (täre) Basque: ikono Belarusian: іко́на f (ikóna) Bulgarian: ико́на (bg) f (ikóna) Catalan: icona (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 聖像／圣像 (zh) (shèngxiàng) Czech: ikona (cs) f Danish: ikon c Dutch: icoon (nl) f Erzya: лик (lik) Esperanto: ikono Estonian: ikoon Finnish: ikoni (fi) French: icône (fr) f Galician: icona f Georgian: ხატი (ka) (xaṭi) German: Ikone (de) f Greek: εικόνα (el) f (eikóna), εικόνισμα (el) n (eikónisma) Hebrew: אִיקוֹנִין‎ (he) m (ikonín) Hungarian: ikon (hu) Indonesian: arca (id), ikon (id) Irish: íocón m Italian: icona (it) f Japanese: 聖像 (せいぞう, seizō), イコン (ikon) Kazakh: икон (ikon), икона (ikona) Khmer: រូបតំណាង (ruup tɑmnaang) Korean: 이콘 (ikon), 성상 (seongsang), 성화 (seonghwa) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: îkon (ku) Kyrgyz: икона (ikona) Lao: ເທວະຮູບ (thē wa hūp), ຮູບບູຊາ (hūp bū sā) Latin: icon (la) f Latvian: ikona f Lithuanian: ikona (lt) f Macedonian: икона f (ikona) Norwegian: Bokmål: ikon (no) m or n Nynorsk: ikon m or n Ossetian: иконӕ (ikonæ) Pashto: نښه‎ (ps) Persian: تمثال‎ (fa) (temsâl), شمایل‎ (fa) (šemâyel), شمائل‎ (šemâ'el) Polish: ikona (pl) f Portuguese: ícone (pt) m, ídolo (pt) m Romanian: icoană (ro) f Russian: ико́на (ru) f (ikóna) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ѝкона f Roman: ìkona (sh) f Slovak: ikona (sk) f Slovene: ikona (sl) f Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m Swedish: ikon (sv) c Tajik: икона (ikona), тимсол (timsol), шамоил (šamoyil) Thai: รูปเคารพ (rûup-kao-róp) Turkish: ikon (tr) Turkmen: ikona Ukrainian: іко́на (uk) f (ikóna) Uyghur: ئىكونا‎ (ikona) Uzbek: ikona (uz) Vietnamese: linh ảnh, ảnh thánh Welsh: eicon m Yup'ik: ikuunaq

exemplar — See also translations at exemplar,‎ patron saint

Arabic: أَيْقُونَة‎ f (ʔayqūna) Chinese: Mandarin: 偶像 (zh) (ǒuxiàng) Dutch: icoon (nl) f Finnish: symboli (fi), ikoni (fi) French: icône (fr) f German: Symbol (de) n Greek: πρότυπο (el) n (prótypo), είδωλο (el) n (eídolo) Italian: icona (it) f Japanese: 偶像 (ja) (ぐうぞう, gūzō) Korean: 우상 (ko) (usang) Maori: hautupia, hautupua Polish: ikona (pl) f, symbol (pl) m Portuguese: ícone (pt) m Russian: ико́на (ru) f (ikóna), и́дол (ru) m (ídol), куми́р (ru) m (kumír) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: икона f Roman: ikona (sh) f Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m Swedish: ikon (sv) c, förebild (sv) c Vietnamese: điển hình (vi) Welsh: eicon m

small picture, computer icon

Amharic: አዶ (ʾädo) Arabic: أَيْقُونَة‎ f (ʔayqūna) Armenian: պատկերակ (patkerak) Bulgarian: икона (bg) f (ikona) Burmese: အိုင်ကွန် (uingkwan) Catalan: icona (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 圖標／图标 (zh) (túbiāo) Czech: ikona (cs) f Dutch: icoon (nl) f or m, pictogram (nl) n Esperanto: piktogramo Finnish: kuvake (fi) French: icône (fr) f Galician: icona f German: Icon (de) n Greek: εικονίδιο (el) n (eikonídio) Hungarian: ikon (hu) Indonesian: ikon (id) Irish: íocón m Italian: icona (it) f Japanese: アイコン (ja) (aikon) Kazakh: таңбаша (kk) (tañbaşa) Korean: 아이콘 (ko) (aikon) Maori: ata (mi) Norman: icône Norwegian: Bokmål: ikon (no) m or n Nynorsk: ikon m or n Persian: نماک‎ (fa) Polish: ikona (pl) f, ikonka f Portuguese: ícone (pt) m Romanian: iconiță (ro) f Russian: ико́нка (ru) f (ikónka), пиктогра́мма (ru) f (piktográmma), значо́к (ru) m (značók), карти́нка (ru) f (kartínka) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: икона f, иконица f Roman: ikona (sh) f, ikonica f Slovak: ikona (sk) f, symbol m Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m Swedish: ikon (sv) c, symbol (sv) c Thai: ไอคอน, สัญรูป Turkish: simge (tr) Uyghur: سىنبەلگە‎ (sinbelge), ئايكون‎ (aykon) Welsh: eicon

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Interlingua: (please verify) icono

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• COIN, Coin, Nico, cion, coin, coni

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Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

īcōn f (genitive īconis); third declension

1. an image
2. (later Latin): icon (religious painting)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	īcōn	īconēs
Genitive	īconis	īconum
Dative	īconī	īconibus
Accusative	īconem	īconēs
Ablative	īcone	īconibus
Vocative	īcōn	īconēs

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 (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English icon.

Noun

icon n (plural iconuri)

1. (computing) icon

Declension

Declension of icon

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) icon	iconul	(niște) iconuri	iconurile
genitive/dative	(unui) icon	iconului	(unor) iconuri	iconurilor
vocative	iconule		iconurilor