eternal
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English eternal, from Old French eternal, from Late Latin aeternālis, from Latin aeternus (“eternal”), from aevum (“age”). Displaced native Old English ēċe.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈtɜː.nəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪˈtɝ.nəl/, /iˈtɝ.nəl/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
- Hyphenation: eter‧nal
Adjective
editeternal (comparative more eternal, superlative most eternal)
- Lasting forever; unending.
- Synonyms: agelong, endless, everlasting, permanent, sempiternal, unending; see also Thesaurus:eternal
- Antonyms: ephemeral, momentary, transient; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral
- 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding:
- But here again it is another question, quite different from our having an idea of eternity, to know whether there were any real being, whose duration has been eternal.
- 1700 [c. 1387–1400], John, transl. Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables, Ancient and Modern, translation of The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer:
- Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food / Of incense and the grateful steam of blood; / Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine, / And fires eternal in thy temple shine.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Virmire:
- Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die.
We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything.
- 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
- In a bid to understand the eternal mystery that is woman, Bart goes to the least qualified possible source for advice and counsel: his father, who remarkably seems to have made it to his mid-30s without quite figuring out much of anything.
- (philosophy) Existing outside time; as opposed to sempiternal, existing within time but everlastingly.
- Synonyms: timeless, atemporal; see also Thesaurus:timeless
- (hyperbolic) Constant; perpetual; ceaseless; ever-present.
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
- Beneath him you might have seen the three of us - myself, sunburnt, young, and vigorous after our open-air tramp; Summerlee, solemn but still critical, behind his eternal pipe; Lord John, as keen as a razor-edge, with his supple, alert figure leaning upon his rifle, and his eager eyes fixed eagerly upon the speaker.
- (dated) Exceedingly great or bad; used as an intensifier.
- Synonym: awful
- some eternal villain
Usage notes
editMay be used postpositively, as in peace eternal, possibly as a result of Latin influence.[1]
Derived terms
editTranslations
edit
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Noun
editeternal (plural eternals)
- One who lives forever; an immortal.
- 2012, D. E. Phoenix, Revelations of the Fallen: The Blasphemy of Astrial Belthromoto:
- Yes, I want that raw power that is only offered to the eternals or creators
References
edit- ^ Peter Hugoe Matthews (2014) The Positions of Adjectives in English, Oxford Univeristy Press, →ISBN, page 172
Anagrams
editCatalan
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Latin aeternālis. First attested in the 14th century.[1]
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editeternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural eternals)
References
edit- ^ “eternal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
Further reading
edit- “eternal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “eternal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “eternal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Galician
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aeternālis.
Adjective
editeternal m or f (plural eternais)
Further reading
edit- “eternal”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024
Middle English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Old French eternal, eternel, from Latin aeternālis; equivalent to eterne + -al.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editeternal
- Eternal, permanent; having existed (and existing) forever.
- Endless, unending; lasting forever.
- (rare) Long-lasting; non-ephemeral.
Synonyms
editDescendants
editReferences
edit- “ēternā̆l, -ē̆l, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-01-19.
Occitan
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aeternālis.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editeternal m (feminine singular eternala, masculine plural eternals, feminine plural eternalas)
Portuguese
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Latin aeternālis.
Pronunciation
edit
- Hyphenation: e‧ter‧nal
Adjective
editeternal m or f (plural eternais, not comparable)
Further reading
edit- “eternal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024
Spanish
editEtymology
editFrom Latin aeternālis.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editeternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural eternales)
Further reading
edit- “eternal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ey- (life)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)nəl
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)nəl/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Philosophy
- English hyperboles
- English dated terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Infinity
- English terms suffixed with -al
- en:Time
- English adjectives commonly used as postmodifiers
- Catalan terms borrowed from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives
- Catalan epicene adjectives
- Galician terms derived from Latin
- Galician lemmas
- Galician adjectives
- Galician formal terms
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English terms suffixed with -al
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- enm:Time
- Occitan terms derived from Latin
- Occitan terms with audio pronunciation
- Occitan lemmas
- Occitan adjectives
- Portuguese terms borrowed from Latin
- Portuguese terms derived from Latin
- Portuguese 3-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese 4-syllable words
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese adjectives
- Portuguese uncomparable adjectives
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish 3-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/al
- Rhymes:Spanish/al/3 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish adjectives
- Spanish epicene adjectives
- es:Time