eternal, a. and n.
(iːˈtɜːnəl)
Forms: 4 eternale, -eel, (5 eternaile Sc.), 5–7 eternall(e, 6 æternall, 4– eternal.
[a. OF. eternal, -el (mod. F. éternel) = Pr. and Sp. eternal, It. eternale, ad. late L. æternālis, f. ætern-us: see eterne and -al1.
In philosophical and theological uses the word is the representative of Gr. αἰώνιος, f. αἰών age, æon.]
A. adj.
1. a. Infinite in past and future duration; without beginning or end; that always has existed and always will exist: esp. of the Divine Being.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace ii. 180 Eternaile God, quhy suld I thus wayis de. 1524 Abbot Malvern in R. Glouc. (1724) 584 The Eternall King..shall reward everychone, Which..this wretched world doth despise. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 2 b, We shall se the father of heuen and..his eternall sone our lord Jesu chryst. 1611 Bible Deut. xxxiii. 27 The eternall God is thy refuge, and vnderneath are the euerlasting armes. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 25 That to the highth of this great Argument I may assert th' Eternal Providence. a 1729 Clarke Serm. I. iv. (R.), The eternal, supreme cause, has..a perfect.. comprehension of all things. a 1800 Blair Serm. III. xix. (R.), The ancient philosophers..maintained the eternal existence of matter. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Goethe Wks. (Bohn) I. 392 The old Eternal Genius who built the world. |
b. By those who hold that time, i.e. the relation of succession, pertains merely to things as viewed by finite intelligence, and not to absolute reality, the word as used of God or His actions is interpreted in the sense: Not conditioned by time; not subject to time relations.
Phrases in which the word has properly this sense are, however, often used in religious language without any definite recognition of the metaphysical theory which they imply, being taken as figurative expressions of the divine omniscience.
| 1651 Hobbes Leviath. 20 Names that signifie nothing..as..eternal—Now, and the like canting of Schoolemen. 1793 T. Taylor Sallust xiii. 64 note, The eternal (τὸ αἰώνιον) says Olympiodorus, is a total now, exempt from the past and future circulations of time, and totally subsisting in a present abiding now; but the perpetual (τὸ ἀίδιον) subsists indeed always, but is beheld in the three parts of time, past, present, and future. a 1834 Coleridge, This eternal (i.e. timeless) act [the sacrifice of Christ] He manifested in time. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 620 The past and future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence; for we say indeed that he was, he is, he will be, but the truth is that ‘he is’ alone truly expresses him. |
2. Infinite in past duration; that has always existed.
| 1690 Locke Hum. Underst. iv. x. §10 If we suppose bare matter without motion, eternal; motion can never begin to be. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 245 Asserting the World to be Eternal, in Contradiction to the express Texts of the Holy Scripture. |
3. a. Infinite in future duration; that always will exist; everlasting, endless.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sec. Nun's T. 34 Thy maydens deeth, that wan thurgh hire merite The eterneel lyf. 1526 Tindale 2 Cor. iv. 18 For thinges which are sene, are temporall: but thynges whiche are not sene, are eternall. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 3 All levand in ane hoip of the eternal glore. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Dec. 90 The power of herbs..which be wont to work eternall sleep. 1660 Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. i. iv. 74 Christ was..admitted to the celestial and eternall priesthood in heaven. 1752 Hume Pol. Disc. x. 155 There is very little ground..to conclude the universe eternal or incorruptible. 1827 Pollok Course T. x, To the evil..Eternal recompense of shame and woe. 1834 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (1839) I. ii. 18 Judgment upon the eternal soul. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xl, An eternal, inexorable lapse of moments is ever hurrying the day of the evil to an eternal night, and the night of the just to an eternal day. |
¶ The New Testament expressions eternal life, death, punishment, etc. are here referred to sense 3, this being the sense in which the adj. in such contexts is ordinarily taken. Other meanings have, however, been assigned to it: (a) Some theologians interpret it in the etymological sense, which is also that of Gr. αἰώνιος, ‘lasting for an age or ages’; (b) others regard the adj. as expressive of a notion of quality in the conditions which it designates, either in addition to, or instead of, the notion of endless duration (cf. 1 b).
| 1853 Maurice Theol. Essays (ed. 2) 451 Knowledge constitutes Eternal Life, and..the loss of it is Eternal Death. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 366 The word eternal, far from being a mere equivalent for ‘everlasting’, never means ‘everlasting’ at all, except by reflexion from the substantives to which it is joined. 1885 T. C. Finlayson Biol. Relig. 87 A human soul might be immortal..and yet might never have what is distinctively called ‘eternal life’—the true spiritual life of fellowship with God. |
b. transf. Pertaining to eternal things; having eternal consequences.
| 1605 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 21 This eternall blason must not be To eares of flesh and bloud. 1732 Law Serious C. iii. (ed. 2) 44 He has liv'd without any reflection..in things of such eternal moment. |
4. a. rhetorically. Said of things to which endless continuance is ascribed hyperbolically or in relative sense. Eternal City (L. urbs æterna): a designation of Rome, occurring in Ovid and Tibullus, and frequent in the official documents of the Empire.
| c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 84 Their Renowne wol be eternal. 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 49 An eternal testimonie of absolute glory. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcel. xxii. ix. 202 A certain region or quarter of that eternall citie [urbis æternæ] Rome. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. x. 71 To..climb the frozen Alps, and tread th' eternal Snow. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Subjects for Painters, Song to Delia, O nymph, th' eternal tear shall flow; The sigh unceasing breathe of thee. 1792 Burke Pres. State Affairs Wks. VII. 106 These accounts..tend to make an eternal rupture between the powers. 1793 Trial T. Muir at Edinb. for Sedit. 33 The Lord Advocate..declared that his imprisonment would be eternal. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. xiii. (1865) 106 Delightful eternal commonplaces, which ‘having been will always be’. 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 301 Hours..passed in the bosom of the eternal mountains. 1850 Alison Hist. Europe IX. lvii. 5 Stupendous mountains, whose summits..wrapped in eternal snow, almost overhang the lake. 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. (1870) xxvii. 218 Michael Angelo..designed the Eternal City. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 390 At no moment..has the Parliament..ever given up its eternal right to regulate the royal succession at its will. 1887 Stevenson Underwoods i. xxxv. 69 Eternal granite hewn from the living isle. |
b. Familiarly, implying weariness or disgust: That seems to be going on for ever; perpetual, incessant, always recurring.
| 1787 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 164 My answers to the eternal applications I receive. 1825 Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 374 Respecting whose proceedings we read eternal columns in the broad-sheet. 1837 Thackeray Ravenswing i, Mrs. C. was sipping her eternal tea. 1884 Dunckley in Manch. Exam. 26 May 6/2 Perhaps more serious reading would then dethrone the eternal novel. |
c. nonce-use. Having an ‘eternal’ resolve.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. ii. 166 Never did young man fancy With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. |
d. eternal triangle: see triangle n.
5. Of truths, principles, divine or natural laws, etc.: Valid through all eternity, immutable, unalterable. Esp. in phr. eternal truths or eternal verities, necessary truths, as being valid at all times.
| [1604 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. §2 The law wherby he [God] worketh is eternall, and therfore can have no shew or colour of mutabilitie.] a 1688 Cudworth (title) A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iv. xi. 323 Propositions that are once true, must needs be eternal Verities. 1694 Ibid. (ed. 2) iv. xi. 366 Propositions are therefore call'd Eternal Truths, not because they are Eternal Propositions actually formed... But because being once made..they will, whenever they can be supposed to be made again at any time..always actually be true. a 1700 Dryden (J.), Hobbes believed the eternal truths which he opposed. 1791 Burke Let. to Memb. Nat. Assembly Wks. VI. 64 It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men [etc.]. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Napoleon Wks. (Bohn) I. 381 It was the nature of things, the eternal law of man..which baulked and ruined him. 1855 G. Brimley Ess., Tennyson 82 To exhibit some of the eternal elements of tragedy still in operation among us. 1883 F. H. Bradley Logic II. ii. i. 289 No vehicle conveys the eternal verities half so well as does the labyrinth of a fantastic genealogy. 1900 B. Russell Philos. of Leibniz ii. 18 The eternal truths, he says, are all hypothetical. 1960 K. Amis Take a Girl like You xxvi. 301 ‘Do you think it's right to give up your principles for somebody you're in love with?’ ‘I say, we are getting down to the eternal verities, aren't we?’ |
6. eternal flower, a name for the Xeranthemum; also called ‘everlasting’.
| 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxvi. 388 Eternal Flower has an imbricate calyx with the inner scales membranaceous. |
7. ‘Used to express extreme abhorrence’ (Schmidt). Now vulgar or dial.
| 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. ii. 160 There was a Brutus once, that would haue brook'd Th' eternall Diuell to keepe his State in Rome. 1604 ― Oth. iv. ii. 130, I will be hang'd, if some eternall Villaine Haue not deuis'd this Slander. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Eternal, infernal, damned..‘Oh, he is an eternal rogue’! |
8. quasi-adv.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 64 We were.. Two Lads, that thought there was no more behind, But..to be Boy eternall. 1614 Rowlands Fooles Bolt 36 Such sable colours should be worne, for them that do eternall mourne. 1671 Milton P.R. iv. 391 What kingdom, Real or allegoric, I discern not; Nor when: eternal sure—as without end, Without beginning. |
B. quasi-n. and n.
1. the Eternal: God, the Deity. Cf. Fr. l'Eternel (transf. Heb. yhwh Jehovah).
| 1582 North tr. Gueuara's Diall Princes 189 The eternall [ed. 1557 eternal creator] created this world in short space. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. iv. 81 By Penitence th' Eternalls wrath's appeas'd. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. i. (1611) 3 The lawe whereby the Eternall himselfe doth worke. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 46 His trust was with th' Eternal to be deem'd Equal in strength. 1724 T. Richers Royal Geneal. Spain 200 Having been summon'd to appear before the Tribunal of the Eternal. |
† 2. = eternity. Chiefly in phrase from eternal = L. ab æterno. Obs.
| 1622 S. Ward Life of Faith in Death (1627) 29, I was from eternall a sheepe destined to the slaughter. 1633 W. Struther True Happiness 65 Albeit we be in God from eternall. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iii. 34 Eternal is at Hand, To swallow Time's Ambitions. |
3. pl. Eternal things.
| 1649 Roberts Clavis Bibl. 391 These temporals, spirituals, and eternals..must be prudently distinguished. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 154 Angells..administring not only in temporalls and in spiritualls, but likewise to eternalls. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ii. 340 All God-like Passion for Eternals quench'd; All Relish of Realities expir'd. 1840 De Quincey Essenes Wks. X. 265 A body of men so truly spiritual in the eternals of their creed, whatever might be the temporals of their practice. 1885 J. Martineau Ethical Th. I. 6 A certain stock of eternals transmigrates through various forms. |