icon
pronunciation
How to pronounce icon in British English:
UK [ˈaɪkɒn]
How to pronounce icon in American English:
US [ˈaɪkɑːn]
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- Noun:
- (computer science) a graphic symbol (usually a simple picture) that denotes a program or a command or a data file or a concept in a graphical user interface
- a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
- a conventional religious painting in oil on a small wooden panel; venerated in the Eastern Church
Word Origin
- icon
- icon: [16] The etymological idea underlying icon is of ‘similarity’. It comes via Latin īcōn from Greek eikón, which was derived from a prehistoric base meaning ‘be like’. From ‘likeness, similarity’, eikón progressed semantically via ‘image’ to ‘portrait, picture’. That was the general sense in which English acquired the word (‘The Icon, or forme of the same birde, I have caused thus to bee figured’, John Bossewell, Workes of Armorie 1572), and it was not until the early 19th century that the particular application to a ‘sacred portrait in the Eastern Orthodox church’ entered the language.
- icon (n.)
- also ikon, 1570s, "image, figure, representation," from Late Latin icon, from Greek eikon "likeness, image, portrait," related to eikenai "be like, look like," of unknown origin. Eastern Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded 1982.
Example
- 1. Clicking the icon launches gmail in its own window .
- 2. So he was now the new icon for the protectionists .
- 3. Now you just swipe up from the camera icon .
- 4. An interesting phrases icon lists the interesting phrases for the document .
- 5. That icon has now been destroyed .