noun /ji.ə(ɹ)z,jɜː(ɹ)z/
An unusually long time
"It will be a shorter book and it will not start four million years ago," he said with a smile at an awards ceremony in the Pennsylvania state Capitol. - Earliest Usenet use via Google Groups: fa.sf-lovers, 05 May 1981 1718-PDT, Jim McGrath
Wikipedia foundation.