perennial
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pəˈɹɛn.ɪ.əl/
ipa: /pəˈɹɛn.j(ə)l/
ipa: /pəˈɹɛn.i.əl/
Etymology: The adjective is borrowed from Latin perennis (“lasting through the whole year or for several years, perennial; continual, everlasting, perpetual”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Perennis is derived from per- (“completive or intensifying prefix with the sense of doing something all the way through or entirely”) + annus (“year; season, time”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂et- (“to go”)). By surface analysis, per- + -ennial.
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Cognates
* Middle French pérenne (modern French pérenne (“lasting through the whole year, perennial”))
* Italian perenne (“lasting for a long time”)
* Spanish perenne (“eternal; permanent; a perennial plant”)
Senses: examples: text: a perennial stream
text: [W]hat is most admirable is the vast enclosure, and variety of ground, in yᵉ large garden, containing vineyards, cornefields, meadows, groves (whereof one is of perennial greens), and walkes of vast lengthes, so accurately kept and cultivated, that nothing can be more agreeable.
ref: 1644 March 8 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 27 February 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 43:
text: And there is ſuch a thing as Subterraneous Heat, […] [a]s is manifeſt from the ſmoking of perennial Fountains in froſty VVeather, and VVater dravvn out of Pumps and open VVells.
ref: 1713, W[illiam] Derham, “[A Survey of the Terraqueous Globe.] The Distribution of the Earth and Waters.”, in Physico-Theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation. […], London: […] W[illiam] Innys, […], →OCLC, book II (Of the Terraqueous Globe It Self, in General), footnote 3, pages 49–50:
text: It [the pond] is a clear and deep green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in circumference, and contains about sixty-one and a half acres; a perennial spring in the midst of pine and oak woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the clouds and evaporation.
ref: 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 191:
text: That desert's age the gorge may prove, / Piercing profound the mountain bare; / Yet hardly churned out in the groove / By a perennial wear and tear / Of floods; nay, dry it shows within; / But twice a year the waters flow, / Nor then in tide, but dribbling thin: […]
ref: 1876, Herman Melville, “Canto I. In the Mountain.”, in Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], →OCLC, part III (Mar Saba), page 306:
text: These offshore Sonoman mountains likely formed an orogenic (mountainous) barrier to moisture inland, resulting in a mountain-shadow onshore desert punctuated by regional annual and large basin perennial streams draining into a forearc saline sea.
ref: 2012, Chinle Miller, “The Tectonic Forces of the Mesozoic”, in In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition, page 34:
synonyms: word: multiyear
word: yearslong
word: perennal
glosses: Lasting or remaining active throughout the year, for multiple years, or all the time.
examples: text: His artwork has a perennial beauty.
text: There, on perennial Adamant deſign'd, / The various Fortunes of your Race you'll find: […]
ref: 1717, Leonard Welsted, “Book XV. [The Deification of Julius Cæsar.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 545:
text: Good humour may be defined a habit of being pleaſed, a conſtant and perennial ſoftneſs of manner, eaſineſs of approach, and ſuavity of diſpoſition; […]
ref: 1750 December 5 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. 72. Saturday, November 24. 1750.”, in The Rambler, volume III, Edinburgh: [[…] Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 155:
text: The perennial exiſtence of bodies corporate and their fortunes, are things particularly ſuited to a man who has long views; who meditates deſigns that require time in faſhioning; and which propoſe duration when they are accompliſhed.
ref: 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 232:
text: Has Ireland been governed in a 'wise and loving' manner? A government and guidance of white European men which has issued in perennial hunger of potatoes to the third man extant,—ought to drop a veil over its fact, and walk out of court under conduct of proper officers; saying no word; expecting now of a surety sentence either to change or die.
ref: 1839 (indicated as 1840), Thomas Carlyle, “Finest Peasantry in the World”, in Chartism, London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, page 25:
text: She has a large gold eye-glass, has Lady Tippins, to survey the proceedings with. If she had one in each eye, it might keep that other drooping lid up, and look more uniform. But perennial youth is in her artificial flowers, and her list of lovers is full.
ref: 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “A Marriage Contract”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, book the first (The Cup and the Lip), page 90:
text: Her name was Liberty! Earth lay before her, / And throbbed unconscious fealty and truth; / Morning and night men hastened to adore her, / And from her eyes Peace drew perennial youth.
ref: 1882, John Boyle O’Reilly, “The Three Queens”, in In Bohemia, Boston, Mass.: The Pilot Publishing Co. […], published 1886, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 77:
synonyms: word: continual
word: enduring
word: everlasting
word: permanent
word: timeless
word: ageful
word: agelong
word: amaranthine
word: endless
word: enduring
word: eternal
word: eterne
word: everduring
word: evergreen
word: everlasting
word: eviternal
word: forever
word: imperishable
word: indesinent
word: lasting
word: neverending
word: perennial
word: permanent
word: perpetual
word: perpetuate
word: persistent
word: sempiternal
word: timeless
word: unending
word: undeadly
word: undying
glosses: Continuing without cessation or intermission for several years, or for an undetermined or infinite period; neverending or never failing; perpetual, unceasing.
examples: text: a perennial candidate in elections
text: Change is a perennial theme in politics.
text: Ludgate Hill is not Moirosi’s Mountain, but, after all, is only a gentle ascent of about half an inch in the foot, over a length of about two hundred yards, up which unshod omnibus horses would trot with a full load in any weather. Yet there it must remain, a chief thoroughfare in the heart of London, a perennial cause of complaint, and of fear, disgust, and injury to man and horse.
ref: 1881, “Free-lance” [pseudonym; J. T. Denny], “Ludgate Hill only Rises about Four Feet in Every Hundred—Societies—the Bearing Rein only Required on Cripples”, in Horses and Roads: Or How to Keep a Horse Sound on His Legs […], 3rd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 129:
text: Of all the questions which, throughout the centuries, have escaped from the lips of man, there is none which has been asked with such persistence, none which has possessed interest more perennial, than "Whence do I come? Whither shall I go?" Man's origin, man's hereafter, have ever been of intensest interest to man.
ref: 1886, Annie Besant, Life, Death, and Immortality, London: Freethought Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, page 3:
synonyms: word: repetitious
word: monotonous
word: perennial
word: recurrent
word: recurring
word: repeating
word: repetitional
word: repetitionary
word: repetitious
word: repetitive
glosses: Appearing or recurring again and again; recurrent.
synonyms: word: repetitious
word: monotonous
word: perennial
word: recurrent
word: recurring
word: repeating
word: repetitional
word: repetitionary
word: repetitious
word: repetitive
glosses: Appearing or recurring again and again; recurrent.
Appearing again each year; annual.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
coordinate_terms: annual
biennial
glosses: Of a plant: active throughout the year, or having a life cycle of more than two growing seasons.
Derived terms: nonperennial
perennialism
perennialist
perenniality
perennialization
perennialize
perennially
perennialness
perennial philosophy
perenniation
Related terms: word: perennate
word: perennating
word: perennation
word: perennious
word: perennity