Dark Ages

See also: dark Ages and dark ages

English

Alternative forms

• (singular): Dark Age
• (plural): dark Ages, dark ages, (obsolete except archaic) darke ages

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɑːˌkeɪd͡ʒɪz/

Proper noun

the Dark Ages

1. (see usage notes) The period of European history encompassing (roughly) 476–1000 CE.

   Synonym: Early Middle Ages

   • 2001 December, Gene Wolfe, “The Best Introduction to the Mountains”, in David Pringle, editor, Interzone‎^[1], number 174, →ISSN, page 49:

     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. (Ancient Greece) The Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100–750 BCE).
3. The dark ages of Cambodia (c. 1450–1863).
4. The dark ages of Laos (c. 1707–1893).
5. (astronomy) The Dark Ages, 380 thousand to about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
6. (figuratively) Any relatively primitive period of time.
   • 1992, Steven Davis, Connectionism: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 84:

     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.

   • 2000 March 6, Network World, volume 17, number 10, page 49:

     Yes, DSL is a better, faster and less expensive way to access the Internet. Unfortunately, it's saddled with back-office systems that belong in the Dark Ages and politics that may require regulatory oversight.

   • 2001, Lawrence Lessig, The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connected world‎^[2], →ISBN, archived from the original on 29 March 2013, page 104:

     Put yourself back in the dark ages, the time before the Internet took off–say, the 1970s–and ask: What was the environment for creativity then?

   • 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Angara: Lost Colony Worlds Codex entry:

     The Scourge disaster sent angaran civilization into a dark age. Records of their golden era of technological advancement and proliferation through space only survived as oral history, making it difficult to separate truth from legend. Nevertheless, angara believe they had colonized numerous planets across the cluster before the Scourge's devastation left them cut off from each other for centuries.

   • 2019 June 14, Taylor Swift, Joel Little (lyrics and music), “You Need to Calm Down”, in Lover‎^[3], performed by Taylor Swift:

     Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Making that sign / Must've taken all night

Usage notes

• For the period of European history, academic historians now prefer the term Early Middle Ages.

Translations

historic period

• Arabic: اَلْعُصُورُ الْمُظْلِمَةُ (al-ʕuṣūru l-muẓlimatu)
• French: siècles obscurs
• German: Dunkle Jahrhunderte, das finstere Mittelalter n
• Hungarian: sötét középkor
• Ido: tenebro-epoko
• Indonesian: Zaman Kegelapan
• Japanese: 暗黒時代 (ja) (あんこくじだい, ankoku jidai)
• Latin: saeculum obscurum
• Malay: Zaman Kelam
• Polish: wieki ciemne m pl
• Portuguese: Idade das Trevas f
• Scottish Gaelic: Na Lintean Dorcha m pl or f pl
• Spanish: Edad Oscura f

Further reading

• Dark Ages on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Dark, a. · 13.c”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume III (D–E), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 34, column 3: “dark ages, a term sometimes applied to the period of the Middle Ages to mark the intellectual darkness characteristic of the time”