eternal
Englisch
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English eternal, from Old French eternal, from Late Latin aeternālis, from Latin aeternus (“eternal”), from aevum (“age”). Displaced native Old English ēċe.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈtɜː.nəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪˈtɝ.nəl/, /iˈtɝ.nəl/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
- Hyphenation: eter‧nal
Adjective
[edit]eternal (comparative more eternal, superlative most eternal)
- Lasting forever; unending.
- Synonyms: agelong, endless, everlasting, permanent, sempiternal, unending; see also Thesaurus:eternal
- Antonyms: ephemeral, momentary, transient; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral
- 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding:
- But here again it is another question, quite different from our having an idea of eternity, to know whether there were any real being, whose duration has been eternal.
- 1700 [c. 1387–1400], John, transl. Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables, Ancient and Modern, translation of The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer:
- Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food / Of incense and the grateful steam of blood; / Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine, / And fires eternal in thy temple shine.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Virmire:
- Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die.
We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything.
- 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
- In a bid to understand the eternal mystery that is woman, Bart goes to the least qualified possible source for advice and counsel: his father, who remarkably seems to have made it to his mid-30s without quite figuring out much of anything.
- (philosophy) Existing outside time; as opposed to sempiternal, existing within time but everlastingly.
- Synonyms: timeless, atemporal; see also Thesaurus:timeless
- (hyperbolic) Constant; perpetual; ceaseless; ever-present.
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
- Beneath him you might have seen the three of us - myself, sunburnt, young, and vigorous after our open-air tramp; Summerlee, solemn but still critical, behind his eternal pipe; Lord John, as keen as a razor-edge, with his supple, alert figure leaning upon his rifle, and his eager eyes fixed eagerly upon the speaker.
- (dated) Exceedingly great or bad; used as an intensifier.
- Synonym: awful
- some eternal villain
Usage notes
[edit]May be used postpositively, as in peace eternal, possibly as a result of Latin influence.[1]
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
Nomen
[edit]eternal (plural eternals)
- One who lives forever; an immortal.
- 2012, D. E. Phoenix, Revelations of the Fallen: The Blasphemy of Astrial Belthromoto:
- Yes, I want that raw power that is only offered to the eternals or creators
References
[edit]- ^ Peter Hugoe Matthews (2014) The Positions of Adjectives in English, Oxford Univeristy Press, →ISBN, page 172
Anagrams
[edit]Catalan
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin aeternālis. First attested in the 14th century.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]eternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural eternals)
References
[edit]- ^ “eternal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
Further reading
[edit]- “eternal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “eternal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “eternal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Galician
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin aeternālis.
Adjective
[edit]eternal m or f (plural eternais)
Further reading
[edit]- “eternal”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, since 2012
Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Old French eternal, eternel, from Latin aeternālis; equivalent to eterne + -al.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]eternal
- Eternal, permanent; having existed (and existing) forever.
- Endless, unending; lasting forever.
- (rare) Long-lasting; non-ephemeral.
Synonyms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “ēternā̆l, -ē̆l, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-01-19.
Occitan
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin aeternālis.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]eternal m (feminine singular eternala, masculine plural eternals, feminine plural eternalas)
Portuguese
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin aeternālis.
Pronunciation
[edit]
- Hyphenation: e‧ter‧nal
Adjective
[edit]eternal m or f (plural eternais, not comparable)
Further reading
[edit]- “eternal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin aeternālis.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]eternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural eternales)
Further reading
[edit]- “eternal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ey- (life)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)nəl
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)nəl/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Philosophy
- English hyperboles
- English dated terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Infinity
- English terms suffixed with -al
- en:Time
- English adjectives commonly used as postmodifiers
- Catalan terms borrowed from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives
- Catalan epicene adjectives
- Galician terms derived from Latin
- Galician lemmas
- Galician adjectives
- Galician formal terms
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English terms suffixed with -al
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- enm:Time
- Occitan terms derived from Latin
- Occitan terms with audio links
- Occitan lemmas
- Occitan adjectives
- Portuguese terms borrowed from Latin
- Portuguese terms derived from Latin
- Portuguese 3-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese 4-syllable words
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese adjectives
- Portuguese uncomparable adjectives
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish 3-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/al
- Rhymes:Spanish/al/3 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish adjectives
- Spanish epicene adjectives
- es:Time