perpetual

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English perpetuel,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French perpetuel (“without end”) and directly borrowed from Latin perpetuālis (“universal; permanent”),^[2][5][3][6] from perpetuus (“continuous, unbroken, lasting”).^[5][2][7][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 12th century.^[9] Etymonline, Barnhart and Hoad derive the Latin adjective from perpes (“lasting, continuous”), from per (“through”) and the root of petō (“to seek, go to, aim at”),^[2][3][8] which Etymonline takes back to Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to rush, to fly”);^[2] the OED notes that this is disputed, and that a derivation from perpetior (“to endure to the end”), from patior (“to suffer”), has also been proposed.^[5] The modern spelling, assimilated to Latin, replaced perpetuel in the 16th century.^[8][10] The word is related to repeat, appetite, compete, impetuous, petition and petulant.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lasting or meant to last for ever, never ending: before 1325, in the Statutes of the Realm, also of an office or position held for life.^[5] Barnhart dates the form perpetuel to about 1340, and Etymonline to the mid-14th century.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the late 14th century, in the Wycliffite Bible, the word also came to mean continuing without interruption, or repeated again and again,^[5][2] the sense behind the modern hyperbolic use for something that only seems endless, as in perpetual complaints.^[12] In law it was used from the same time of rights and payments valid for ever or for an unlimited period.^[5] Perpetual motion, the hypothetical motion of a machine that would run for ever once set going, is recorded from the 1590s.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "never ceasing; eternal with respect to futurity" and "continual; uninterrupted".^[13] Later technical senses were financial, of an investment with no date of maturity (1719), and horticultural, of roses, carnations or strawberries that flower or fruit through the season (1837), which also gave the noun perpetual for such a plant.^[5][4] In the West Riding of Yorkshire a perpetual was a cropping machine with circular knives for cutting the nap of cloth.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1325 – lasting for ever; held for life.^[5]
• c. 1340 – the form perpetuel.^[3]
• before 1382 – continuous, repeated without end; in law, valid for ever.^[5]
• c. 1392–1895 – adverb, perpetually (obsolete).^[5]
• 1590s – perpetual motion.^[2]
• 1719 – finance, having no date of maturity.^[5]
• 1833 – noun, a perpetual bond.^[5]
• 1837 – horticulture, flowering or fruiting through the season; noun, such a variety.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lasting for ever or for an unlimited time; eternal or permanent: the perpetual snows of the high peaks.^[12][4][5]
2. Seeming never to stop because it happens so often; continual: I'm tired of his perpetual excuses.^[12][5]
3. (horticulture) Flowering or bearing fruit throughout the growing season.^[12][5]
4. (chiefly law) Valid or in force for an unlimited period; held for life.^[5]
5. (finance) Of an investment, having no date of maturity.^[5]

Noun

1. A plant that flowers through the season, especially a hybrid perpetual rose.^[4][12][5]
2. (finance) A bond with no fixed date of maturity.^[5]

Adverb

1. (archaic, c. 1392–1895) Perpetually.^[4][5]

Word family

• perpetually
• perpetuality
• nonperpetual
• perpetual motion
• hybrid perpetual

Related words

• perpetuate
• perpetuity
• repeat
• appetite
• compete
• impetuous
• petition
• petulant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)