perpetual

/pəˈpetʃuːəl/pur-PEH-choo-uhl

/pɚˈpɛtʃuəl/pur-PEH-choo-uhl

Meaninguniversal

Common meaning: never ending

perthroughoutSkeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), p. 436 · scan
petto aim at, seekLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 1364 · scan
ualadjective ending: having to do with

‘throughout’ + ‘to aim at, seek’ → perpetual

Journey through time

per — Latin per- “throughout” (path traced)
pet — Latin petō, petīvī, petītum “to aim at, seek” (path traced)

Parts join in Latin as perpetualis.

Latinper- + pet-‘throughout + to aim at, seek’source
Latinperpetualis‘uni- versal’source
Frenchperpetuelsource
Middle Englishperpetuelsource
Englishmeaning shiftsuni- versal → never endingperpetual‘never ending’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin perpetualis, which Skeat analyses as per- ‘throughout’ + pet- ‘to aim at, seek’.

Roots

perpetualis Latin “universal”
petō, petīvī, petītum Latin “to aim at, seek”

Related words

appetite impetus recompete

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