darke ages

Proper noun

the Dark Ages

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.2001 December, Gene Wolfe, “The Best Introduction to the Mountains”, in David Pringle, editor, Interzone, number 174, →ISSN, page 49

   Synonyms:

   Early Middle Ages

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. The Dark Ages, 380 thousand to about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
6. (figuratively) Any relatively primitive period of time.
   • 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.1992, Steven Davis, Connectionism: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 84