perennial

Definition

Lasting or remaining active throughout the year, for multiple years, or all the time.

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”)

Example Sentences

• "a perennial stream"
• "[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."
• "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."