sempiternal

From Old French sempiternel, from Medieval Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperæternus, from semper (“always”) + æternus (“eternal”).

• (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

sempiternal (not comparable)

1. 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!

   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 18:

     As they moved through the shop, which existed in a sempiternal twilight by what light filtered through the grimy windows that had not been washed for years, Rita paused to say, "You said there was some good stuff among this junk. Point me out something you wouldn't be glad to give away to get rid of it."

   • 2008 August 2, Shivangi Singh, “A sneak-peek at ‘just friends’ of filmdom!”, in Zee News‎^[1]:

     [I]n filmdom, the sempiternal question continues: Can a male and female actor be just ‘good friends’?

2. (philosophy) Having infinite temporal duration, rather than outside time and thus lacking temporal duration altogether; everlasting.

• sempitern
• sempiternally
• sempiternity

• intersample, planimeters