SEMPITERNAL

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Dr. Goodword
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SEMPITERNAL

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:46 pm

• sempiternal •

Pronunciation: sem-pee-têr-nêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Eternal, everlasting, without beginning or end.

Notes: The question naturally arises, If we have eternal, why do we need today's Good Word? This is a good word to emphasize infiniteness or length of time in hyperboles. You can emphasize the idea of infiniteness in adjectival, adverbial (sempiternally), or noun form (sempiternality). "Why do you sempiternally ask questions?!" is more emphatic than the same sentence with eternally. Look out for the in the middle of this word where you might expect an [e].

In Play: Here is a dreamy example: "Greenpasture is a devoted potamophile who loves to stretch out along the riverbank and listen to the sempiternal flow of its waters." (Greenpasture, of course, does not live in the US southwest where rivers usually flow annually, not sempiternally. You will probably, however, have more opportunities to use this word in hyperboles than in its literal sense: "The Bickertons's sempiternal bickering got on everybody's nerves."

Word History: Today's Good Word seems to have been around eternally. It comes to us via French from the Latin compound adjective sempiternalis, based on semper "always" (as in the US Marine motto, semper fidelis "always faithful") + aeternus "eternal". Semper is based on a root meaning "as one, same, together" found in English same, Russian sam "self", Sanskrit sam "together", and Greek homo "same". Aeternus comes from PIE *aiwo-t- + the Latin time suffix -ernus. The same complex, *aiwo-t, reached English directly as aught.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:02 pm

This posting went without comment, but the next time it came our way it went to two pages. See them here:

http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewt ... empiternal

saparris
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Postby saparris » Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:22 am

This posting went without comment, but the next time it came our way it went to two pages.......
Yes, but the discussion got sidetracked with riparian.

Sempiternal is a good word. I could use it forever and not grow tired of it, even though it's a bit sesquipedalian.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:59 am

I cannot believe it:
a thread got SIDETRACKED before we joined ! ! ! ! !
Did not the AgoraPolice exist then?????
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:20 pm

We were the ones who sidetracked it.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:39 pm

Oh, nasty us.
A curse on discussion. Isn't censorship a marvel?
No wonder the Russians dream of going back to the
pre-Yeltsin days.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:54 pm

Censored or censured?
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:56 pm

Gosh, you giving me a choice????
Life sempiternal.
(We have to stay on subject, remember????)
Don't stray!
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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