Where does “perpetual” come from?
Perpetual comes from Old French perpetuel, from Latin perpetualis, an adjective formed with the suffix -alis from Latin peto, meaning to seek or strive, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European peth₂-.
perpetual (English): Lasting forever, or for an indefinitely long...
Definitions
- Lasting forever, or for an indefinitely long...
Ancestry of “perpetual”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old French | perpetuel | — |
| 2 | Latin | perpetualis | that holds everywhere, universal, general |
| 3 | Latin | perpetuus | perpetual, continuous, uninterrupted, constant,... |
| 4 | Latin | -uus | forms adjectives on verbal stems |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | *-wos | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -wós | Creates adjectives from verb stems |
Words derived from “perpetual”