Talk:sempiternal

What is the difference between sempiternal and eternal? Doesn't sempiternal mean "with a beginning and without an end," and doesn't eternal mean "without a beginning and end"? In that case, wouldn't sempiternal come from the Latin semper (always/forever), which itself would come from the Latin sami- ("half," as in the English semi-, or "one", as in the Latin semel) and æternus (eternal), ∵ sempiternal literally means "half-eternal"? Geremia (talk) 02:29, 30 April 2012 (UTC)