eternal
英 [?'t??n(?)l; i?-]
美[?'t?nl]
- adj. 永恒的；不朽的
CET4TEM4IELTSGRE考研TOEFLCET6中低頻詞
詞態變化
副詞:?eternally;
助記提示
1. eternal fire 長明燈(墳前的燈).
中文詞源
eternal 永久的
來自拉丁語aeviternus, 永久，永恒。來自詞根ev, 長久，時期，詞源同eon, longevity.
英文詞源
- eternal
- eternal: [14] Something that is eternal lasts literally for ‘aeons’. The word comes via Old French eternal from aeternālis, a late Latin development of the Latin adjective aeternus ‘eternal’. This in turn was a derivative of aevum ‘age’ (which crops up in English medieval, primeval, etc), a relative of Greek aión ‘age’ (from which English gets aeon) and archaic English aye ‘ever’.
=> aeon, aye, ever - eternal (adj.)
- late 14c., from Old French eternel "eternal," or directly from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin aeternus "of an age, lasting, enduring, permanent, everlasting, endless," contraction of aeviternus "of great age," from aevum "age" (see eon). Used since Middle English both of things or conditions without beginning or end and things with a beginning only but no end. A parallel form, Middle English eterne, is from Old French eterne (cognate with Spanish eterno), directly from Latin aeternus. Related: Eternally. The Eternal (n.) for "God" is attested from 1580s.