sempiternal
English
WOTD – 5 September 2008
Etymology
From Old French sempiternel, from Medieval Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperæternus, from semper (“always”) + æternus (“eternal”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌsɛm.pɪˈtəː.nəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌsɛm.pɪˈtɝ.nəl/
- (US)
(file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(r)nəl
- Hyphenation: sem‧pi‧ter‧nal
Adjective
sempiternal (not comparable)
- Everlasting, eternal.
- 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Circles”, in Essays: First Series:
- The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is […] to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short to draw a new circle.
- 2008 August 2, Shivangi Singh, “A sneak-peek at ‘just friends’ of filmdom!”, in Zee News:
- [I]n filmdom, the sempiternal question continues: Can a male and female actor be just ‘good friends’?
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- (philosophy) Everlasting, that is, having infinite temporal duration (as opposed to eternal: outside time and thus lacking temporal duration altogether).
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
seemingly everlasting or eternal
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