sempiternal
English edit
Etymology edit
From Old French sempiternel, from Medieval Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperæternus, from semper (“always”) + æternus (“eternal”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌsɛm.pɪˈtɜː.nəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌsɛm.pɪˈtɝ.nəl/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
- Hyphenation: sem‧pi‧ter‧nal
Adjective edit
sempiternal (not comparable)
- Everlasting, eternal.
- 1841, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Essay X. Circles.”, in Essays, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 265:
- The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- 1898, Thomas Hardy, “To Outer Nature”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 151:
- Why not sempiternal / Thou and I? Our vernal / Brightness keeping, / Time outleaping: / Passed the hodiernal!
- (philosophy) Everlasting, that is, having infinite temporal duration (as opposed to eternal: outside time and thus lacking temporal duration altogether).
Synonyms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
seemingly everlasting or eternal
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