Other forms: icons
An icon is a sacred image, or somebody widely admired as a symbol. A cultural icon, an Orthodox icon, click the icon.
The religious sense is the oldest and is a painted image venerated in the Orthodox church, where the rules for making one are fixed. The computing sense dates from the 1970s, and the fame sense is now so overused that it means famous.
1nouniconA sacred image, or somebody widely admired as a symbol.
“The church walls were covered with golden icons of saints.”
icon is an image.
Greek eikon means a likeness or image, and the computing sense was coined in the 1970s.
Latin
īcōn
English, today
icon
Borrowed from Latin īcōn. From Latin īcōn, from Ancient Greek εἰκών (“likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA