perennial, a. and n.
(pəˈrɛnɪəl)
[f. L. perenni-s lasting through the year or years (f. per through + ann-us year) + -al1: cf. perennal.]
A. adj.
1. a. Lasting, continuing, or extending throughout the year; said esp. of a spring or stream which flows through all seasons of the year.
(But both in this and b, the sense is capable of being understood as ‘Lasting through successive years, never-failing, perpetual’, as in 2, of which continuance through all the seasons of the year is the condition.)
| 1703 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) III. i. 296 Rivers, Brooks, and Perennial Springs. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. ii. v. (1727) 50 note, There is such a Thing as Subterraneous Heat..As is manifest from the smoking of perennial Fountains in frosty Weather. 1879 A. R. Wallace Australasia xvi. 309 Their rapid flow and perennial supply of water are excellently adapted for irrigation. |
† b. Remaining green or leafy throughout the year; evergreen. (Of plants or their leaves.) Obs.
| 1644 Evelyn Diary 8 Nov., A row..covered over with the natural shrubbs, ivy, and other perennial greenes. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 117/1 Perenniel leaves..last all the year. 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. iii. 363 Where round the scene perennial laurels bloom. |
2. a. Lasting through a succession of years, or through a long, indefinite, or infinite time; enduring, lasting, permanent, never-failing, continual, perpetual; everlasting, eternal. perennial philosophy = philosophia perennis.
| 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 72 ¶3 A constant and perennial softness of manner. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies xiii. 19 Myriads in Time's perennial list enroll'd. 1839 Carlyle Chartism iv. (1858) 17 A government and guidance of white European men which has issued in perennial hunger of potatoes to the third man extant. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. x, Perennial youth is in her artificial flowers. 1933 W. R. Inge God & Astronomers i. 13 The perennial philosophy..is the only system which will be found ultimately satisfying. 1945 A. Huxley (title) The perennial philosophy. Ibid. p. vii, Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions. 1962 E. Wynne-Tyson Philos. of Compassion 3 The most fundamental difference between the teachings of the western religions and those of the perennial philosophy and of the original Creed of Christ. 1974 R. C. Zaehner Our Savage God 12 ‘All is One, and One is All..’, seems to have been..what Aldous Huxley considered to be the kernel of..the ‘perennial philosophy’. |
b. Of plants, their roots, etc.: Remaining alive through a number of years; said esp. of a herb which dies down to the root and shoots up afresh every year: opp. to annual and biennial.
| 1672–3 Grew Anat. Roots i. i. §16 In what particular way, some Roots become Perennial. Some are wholly so, as those of Trees, Shrubs, and divers other woody Plants. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. xxiii. (1765) 234 In warm Regions, Plants that are annual with us will become perennial or arborescent. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 299 The vegetation consists mainly of perennial herbs and shrubs. 1891 E. Peacock N. Brendon II. 433 The perennial sweet-pea which she had planted. |
c. Zool. and Anat. Growing continually from persistent pulps, as the incisor teeth of a rodent.
d. Entom. (a) Living for more than one year, as an insect. (b) Forming colonies which are continued from year to year, as ants, bees, etc.
¶ e. loosely. Recurring year after year.
| 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation i. iv. (1852) 124 The difference between A's actual income of 1000l. and the corresponding perennial income of 660l., that is, 340l., will, if accumulated for twenty-seven years and a half, at 4 per cent., produce 16,500l. |
B. n.
1. A perennial plant: see A. 2 b.
| 1763 Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. II. 413 It may destroy annual plants, such as corn, entirely; but in perennials, like grass, it destroys only the leaves or blades. 1868 Rogers Pol. Econ. xiv. (1876) 197 The cotton-plant..grows freely as a perennial in all tropical climates; it flourishes as an annual over..the warmer part of the temperate zones. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. iii. §1. 32 Perennials are plants which live and blossom or fructify year after year. They may or may not have perennial roots. |
2. Something that lasts, or remains fresh, through a succession of years. (Always with conscious allusion to sense 1.)
| 1771 E. Griffith Hist. Lady Barton III. 65 She..told me that..the most constant lovers were not to be considered more than perennials. 1827 Lamb Let. to H. C. Robinson, His jokes..were old trusty perennials,..always as good as new. 1889 Pall Mall G. 31 July 3/2 Belonging to the annuals rather than the perennials of poetry. |
Hence perenniˈality, the quality of being perennial; something that is perennial; peˈrennialize v. trans., to make perennial or permanent.
| 1841 Blackw. Mag. XLIX. 152 The truths to which they are so much attached have a perenniality of new aspects. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. x. ii. (1872) III. 212 Mere ephemera..not related to the Perennialities at all. 1898 Speaker 3 Sept. 287/1 Welling springs, converging to a hollow, have perennialised a wide shallow pool. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. of Plants xviii. 543 It is often possible to extend the perenniality of a biennial by continually preventing seed formation. |