sempiternal
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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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- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 4-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)nəl
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)nəl/4 syllables
- English lemmas
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- en:Philosophy
- English terms suffixed with -al