august

en-verb

august (third-person singular simple present augusts, present participle augusting, simple past and past participle augusted)

augusts (present singular third-person)
augusting (participle present)
augusted (participle past)
augusted (past)


Thursday

From Middle English Thursday, Thuresday, from Old English þursdæġ, þuresdæġ (“Thursday”), possibly from a contraction of þunresdæġ (“Thursday”, literally “Thor's day”), but more likely of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse þórsdagr; all from Proto-West Germanic *Þunras dag (“day of the thunder god”). Compare West Frisian tongersdei, German Low German Dunnersdag, Dutch donderdag, German Donnerstag, Danish torsdag. More at thunder, day.
A calque of Latin diēs Iovis (diēs Jovis), via an association (interpretātiō germānica) of the god Thor with the Roman god of thunder Jove (Jupiter).

der

Cap[ulet]. […] If vve ſhould reuell much, therefore vve vvill haue / Some halfe a dozen frends and make no more adoe. / But vvhat ſay you to Thurſday. / Par[is]. My Lorde I vviſhe that Thurſday vvere to morrovv.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

But for satisfaction pure and deep, for balance in pleasure and comfort, Thursday canʼt be beat.

1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, Vintage (2016), page 50:

Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday defended the code of conduct the Supreme Court created last year, but conceded there needs to be a way to enforce the rules for it to be more effective.

2024 July 25, Devan Cole, “Justice Elena Kagan says Supreme Court’s code of conduct needs an enforcement plan. Takeaways from her wide-ranging comments.”, in CNN:

The fifth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the fourth day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Wednesday and precedes Friday.


hour

hours (plural)
hower (alternative obsolete)
houre (alternative obsolete)
howre (alternative obsolete)

Bislama: aua

Tok Pisin: aua

→ Hausa: awa

From Middle English houre, hour, oure, from Anglo-Norman houre, from Old French houre, (h)ore, from Latin hōra (“hour”), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “any time or period, whether of the year, month, or day”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”). Akin to Old English ġēar (“year”). Doublet of hora and year.
Partly displaced native Old English tīd (“time, hour”), whence Modern English tide.

the darkest hour is always just before the dawn

the darkest hour is just before the dawn

I spent an hour at lunch.

During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]

1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond:

It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.

1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes. The truth is that Newton was very much a product of his time.

2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:

(time) A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes).

點 /点

unit to denote the hour, such as military usage in English

stound

period of sixty minutes, a season or moment


calendar

calendars (plural)
kalendar (alternative archaic)
calender (alternative obsolete)

Tok Pisin: kalenda

→ Gujarati: કેલેંડર (keleṇḍar)

→ Japanese: カレンダー (karendā)

→ Korean: 카렌다 (karenda)

→ Korean: 캘린더 (kaellindeo)

→ Swahili: kalenda

Etymology tree
Old French calendierbor.
Middle English kalender
English calendar
From Middle English kalender, from Old French calendier, from Latin calendarium (“account book”), from kalendae (“the first day of the month”), from calō (“to announce solemnly, to call out (the sighting of the new moon)”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁-. Doublet of calendarium.

etymon

The three principal calendars are the Gregorian, Jewish, and Islamic calendars.

Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years.


season

→ Japanese: シーズン (shīzun)

→ Korean: 시즌 (sijeun)

From Middle English sesoun, seson (“time of the year”), from Old French seson, saison (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serō (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), sǣd (“seed”). Doublet of saison. Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).

temps

(obsolete) an extended, undefined period of time

So it is in a person when a breach hath been made upon his conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some eruption of actual sin; — carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, revenge are all set on work about it and against it, and lust is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest is past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.

1656, John Owen, The Mortification of Sin:

A season of great doubt fell upon her soul.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(archaic) An extended, undefined period of time.

a season of faithlessness

(Evangelical Christianity) A period of time in one’s life characterized by a particular emotion of situation.

massively multiplayer online game
massively multiplayer online game

(video games) A fixed period of time in a massively multiplayer online game in which new content (themes, rules, modes, etc.) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.


birth

en-noun

birth (countable and uncountable, plural births)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-
Proto-Indo-European *-tis
Proto-Indo-European *bʰértisder.
Proto-Germanic *burþiz
Old Norse burðrbor.
Middle English birthe
English birth
From Middle English birthe (1250), from earlier burthe, burde, from Old Norse burðr, byrd (Old Swedish byrth, Swedish börd), replacing Old English ġebyrd (rare variant byrþ), equivalent to bear + -th (thus a piecewise doublet of berth). The Old Norse is from Proto-Germanic *burdiz (compare Old Frisian berde, berd); Old English ġebyrd is from prefixed *gaburþiz (compare Dutch geboorte, German Geburt), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰŕ̥tis (compare Latin fors (“luck”), Old Irish brith), from *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”). More at bear.

etymon

the birth of an empire

(countable) A beginning or start; a point of origin.


quarter

en-noun

quarter (countable and uncountable, plural quarters)

From Middle English quarter, from Anglo-Norman quarter, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”). Doublet of quartier.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-quarter.wav

An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and the quarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 163:

(time) A fourth part of an hour; a period of fifteen minutes, especially with reference to the quarter before or after the hour.


ASAP

→ Finnish: asap

From the 1950s. First known use in a book of Captain Annis G Thompson, who was involved in the Korean War, The Greatest Airlift (1954). Originally used in the meaning "as soon as militarily possible" by military forces.

Susan, please check those figures ASAP!

as soon as possible
as soon as possible#English


jiffy

jiffies (plural)
giffy (alternative obsolete)

Origin unknown; said to have been thieves’ cant for “lightning”. Also formerly written "giffy", to which a connection with gliff has been proposed. As a kind of envelope, a genericization of Jiffy bag.

unk

unknown

I’ll be back in a jiffy.

Most of the limbs of the law do every thing in a jiffy; but ask what they mean, and they would be as much puzzled, as if you required of them the explanantion of a common act of parliament.

1780 February, The Town and Country Magazine, volume 12, page 88:

"Who says I filched a vipe?" demanded the indignant thief. "Say it agin', and I'll wisit your wittualling hoffice§ [footnote: § The Mouth.] in two jiffies, my queer von! I'se as 'onest a k'racter as hany, and doesn't know vot conweyancing‖ [footnote: ‖ Picking pockets, stealing.] is: d' ye 'ear that?"

1836, George W[illiam] M[acArthur] Reynolds, “Chapter XV”, in The Youthful Impostor. A Novel. … In Two Volumes, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: E. L. Carey & A. Hart, →OCLC, page 200:

Of course it's kill or be killed, so at it you go, like Carter and his wild beasts, only in right down earnest, two or three more Tigers joining in, clash slash, and the sparks flying as thick as in a smith's forge, or at a Terrific Combat at the Surrey or the Wells. Such a shindy is too hot to last, and, accordingly, if you're alive at the end of two jiffies, the chance is that you find yourself making quite a melodramatic Tableau—namely, your bloody sword in one hand, a Chinese pigtail in the other, and four or five weltering Tartars lying round your feet!

1842 December, “the Editor” [Thomas Hood], “More News from China”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, volume LXVI, number CCLXIV (Third Part), London: Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough St., →OCLC, page 427:

Here Godfroy nodded pleasantly to Claude, who bowed, and was off— / —In a jiffy* to his men, who greeted him with loud hurrahs. In another jiffy, he was on a barrel, making them an oration. In another jiffy, he had hold of a horse, somehow—for the man had contrived already to make himself so popular in Viot, that he could have anything he liked for the asking. [Footnote: * Jiffy.—Let not the reader scorn the word; it is in Webster. "Jiffy, a moment."—Webster.]

1864, Ulric De Lazie [pseudonym?; copyright entered by Edmund D. Griffin], Dreams within Dreams; a Plagiarism of the Seventeenth Century; Being, Like Most Visions of the Night, a Medley of Old Things and New, New York, N.Y.: P. O'Shea, 104 Bleecker Street, →OCLC, page 233:

Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern. Then, for a jiffy, I hung on and fought for breath.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 166:

"Plonker!" Harry shouted. Sgt Glum arrived at the double from the newly extended kitchen were the SAS were billeted. / "Sah?" / "Prepare the men, Sergeant, we're on the march in two jiffies." "Yessah! Where to, sah?"

2012, Nigel Peace, “The Wilderness”, in 5ign5 of 1if3: A Hilarious Novel of Life and Death, Gobowen, Shropshire: Local Legend Publishing, →ISBN:

(colloquial) A very short, unspecified length of time.

The FOR...NEXT loop for TIME increments by STEP 2 (every two jiffies) for two reasons: 1) the printing of 60 jiffies a second is too fast to read, and 2) the printing of each jiffy takes longer than its incrementations; this would delay the loop, so the printing of TIME$ is slower than it should be.

1980, Carroll S. Donahue, Janice K. Enger, PET-CBM Personal Computer Guide, Berkeley, Calif.: Osborne/McGraw-Hill, →OCLC, page 283:

The number of processed packets per round is limited in dependence of the page size. The processed packets are forwarded to a single queue and are processed for the time of two jiffies.

2015, Johanna Ullrich, Edgar R. Weippl, “Protection through Isolation: Virtues and Pitfalls”, in Ryan Ko, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, editors, The Cloud Security Ecosystem: Technical, Legal, Business and Management Issues (Syngress Advanced Topics in Information Security), Waltham, Mass.: Syngress, →ISBN, page 135:

(computing) A unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic timer – historically, and by convention, 0.01 of a second, but some computer operating systems use other values.

систе́мный тик

(computing) Unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic timer

(physics) The time taken for light to travel a specified distance in a vacuum, usually one centimetre (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds), but sometimes one foot or the width of a nucleon.


now

From Middle English now, nou, nu, from Old English nū, from Proto-West Germanic *nū, from Proto-Germanic *nu, from Proto-Indo-European *nū (“now”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots noo (“now”), Saterland Frisian nu (“now”), West Frisian no (“now”), Dutch nu, nou (“now”), German nu, nun (“now”), Norwegian Bokmål nå (“now”), Norwegian Nynorsk no (“now”), Swedish and Danish nu (“now”), Icelandic nú (“now”), Latin num (“even now, whether”), Latin nunc (“now”), Albanian ni (“now”), Lithuanian nù (“now”), Avestan 𐬥𐬏 (nū, “now”), Sanskrit नु (nu, “now”).

Now wife.

(archaic, law) At the time the will is written. Used in order to prevent any inheritance from being transferred to a person of a future marriage. Does not indicate the existence of a previous marriage.


now

even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then

Now I am six.

Stop that now, Jimmy!

I could have been Secretary of State now if I hadn’t left politics five years ago.

We can’t phone now - they will certaintly have gone to bed.

Now he remembered why he had come.

He now asked her whether she had made pudding.

The pudding was now ready to be served.


now

Now is the right time.

There is no better time than now.

Forever is composed of Nows— / 'T is not a different time, / Except for infiniteness / And latitude of home.

a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “Forever is composed of Nows”, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, editors, Further Poems of Emily Dickinson, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, published 1929, page 25:

Time is not thrust together and summed up out of nows, but the reverse: with reference to the now we can articulate the stretching out of time always only in specific ways.

1982, Albert Hofstadter, The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, translation of original by Martin Heidegger, page 249:

(countable, chiefly in phenomenology) A particular instant in time, as perceived at that instant.


frequency

en-noun

frequency (countable and uncountable, plural frequencies)

frequencies (plural)
frequence (alternative obsolete)

From Latin frequentia, from frequens. English equivalent frequent + -cy.

תדר

used for a radio station or a two-way radio device

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 136. Frequency

With growing confidence, the Viking’s raids increased in frequency.

The frequency of bus service has been improved from one every 15 to one every 12 minutes.

(uncountable or countable) The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between incidence and time period.

The frequency of the musical note A above middle C is 440 oscillations per second.

The frequency of a wave is its velocity v divided by its wavelength #92;lambda: f#61;v#47;#92;lambda.

Broadcasting live at a frequency of 98.3 megahertz, we’re your rock alternative!

The frequency for electric power in the Americas is generally 60 Hz rather than 50.

36 MHz transponder providing a pool of 794 reallocatable frequencies.

1976, James Martin, Telecommunications and the Computer:

In this case, a band-pass filter using a range or window of frequencies is appropriate to isolate the frequency or the group of frequencies that characterize a specific cycle.

2015, Patrick R. Nicolas, Scala for Machine Learning, page 109:

(countable) The quotient of the number of times n a periodic phenomenon occurs over the time t in which it occurs: f=n/t.

تَرَدُّد

The quotient of the number of times a periodic phenomenon occurs over the time in which it occurs

(statistics) number of times an event occurred in an experiment (absolute frequency)


time

time (countable and uncountable, plural times)

Bislama: taem

Sranan Tongo: ten

→ Punjabi: ṭāim, ṭaim, ṭāīm

Gurmukhi script: ਟਾਇਮ, ਟੈਮ, ਟਾਈਮ

Shahmukhi script: ٹائم, ٹیم, ٹائیم

From Middle English tyme, time, from Old English tīma (“time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to tide. Not related to Latin tempus.
Cognates
*Scots tym, tyme (“time”)
*Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän (“time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity”)
*Danish time (“hour, lesson”)
*Swedish timme (“hour”)
*Norwegian time (“lesson, hour”)
*Faroese tími (“hour, lesson, time”)
*Icelandic tími (“time, season”).

عَصْر

extended period of time, defined or undefined: age, era, etc.

কাল

major division of the year: month, season, etc.

ժամ

numerical indication of a particular moment in time

at church every time the doors swing open

desperate times call for desperate measures

desperate times require desperate measures

serial time-encoded amplified microscopy

there is a place and time for everything

there is a time and a place for everything

there is a time and place for everything

there's a time and a place for everything

time spent laughing is time spent with the gods

time stretch analog-to-digital converter

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 106. Time

(only in singular, sports and figuratively) Time out; temporary, limited suspension of play.


early

en-adj

early (comparative earlier, superlative earliest)

earlier (comparative)
earliest (superlative)

From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.

early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise

like turkeys voting for an early Christmas

at eleven, we went for an early lunch; she began reading at an early age; his mother suffered an early death

Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:

At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.

The early guests sipped their punch and avoided each other's eyes.

Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.

The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.

Early results showed their winning 245 out of 300 seats in parliament. The main opponent locked up only 31 seats.

'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.

2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

It’s one of the earliest pieces in the comprehensive collection of metronomes by the British instrument dealer Tony Bingham, which forms the bulk of the Basel exhibition.

2017 June 30, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, “Ticktock as Taskmaster: A Show About Metronomes and Musical Time”, in The New York Times:

After but close to the start of a period of time.


early

From Middle English erly, orely, arely, erliche, arliche, from Old English ǣrlīċe, ārlīċe (“early; early in the morning”, adverb), equivalent to ere + -ly. Cognate with Old Norse árliga, árla ( > Danish årle, Swedish arla, Norwegian årle, Faroese árla).

We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.

I had children too early (in life), so my first baby arrived early.

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

While warmer springs cause the early spider orchid to flower earlier in May, climate warming is also causing female bees to emerge from hibernation even earlier – confounding the orchid’s attempts to dupe the male bees.

2018 April 5, Patrick Barkham, The Guardian:

At a time before expected; sooner than usual.

[T]thoſe that ſeeke me early, ſhall find me.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 8:17, column 1:

You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; / Tomorrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the blythe Newyear; […]

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The May Queen”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 90:


night

en-noun

night (countable and uncountable, plural nights)

→ Pijin: naet

→ Korean: 나이트 (naiteu)

From Middle English nighte, night, nyght, niȝt, naht, from Old English niht, from Proto-West Germanic *naht (“night”), from Proto-Germanic *nahts (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”).
Cognate with Scots nicht, neicht (“night”), West Frisian nacht (“night”), Dutch nacht (“night”), Low German Nacht (“night”), German Nacht (“night”), Danish nat (“night”), Swedish and Norwegian natt (“night”), Faroese nátt (“night”), Icelandic nótt (“night”), Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts, “night”), Greek νύχτα (nýchta, “night”), Russian ночь (nočʹ, “night”), Sanskrit नक्त (naktá), नक्ति (nákti, “night”), and Latin nox (“night”), whence English nox, a doublet.

Most animals are awake at day and sleep at night.

The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.

1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:

Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:

(countable) The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark.

(law, countable) A period of time often defined in the legal system as beginning 30 minutes after sunset, and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.

գիշեր

quality of sleep obtained during a night


after

Northern England, other non-rhotic without the trap–bath split

From Middle English after, from Old English æfter, from Proto-West Germanic *aftar, from Proto-Germanic *after, *aftiri, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epoteros (“further behind, further away”), from *h₂epo (“off, away”).
Cognate with Scots efter (“after”), North Frisian efter (“after, behind”), West Frisian after, achter, efter (“behind; after”), Low German/Dutch achter (“behind”), German after- (“after-”), Swedish/Danish efter (“after”), Norwegian Nynorsk/Norwegian Bokmål etter (“after”), Icelandic eftir (“after”), aftur (“back, again”).
The Irish usage to indicate recent completion of an activity is a calque of the Irish collocation Táim tar éis... (“I have just...”, literally “I am after...”).

inh

I left the room, and the dog bounded after.

They lived happily ever after.

I might come next month, or the month after.


after

уашҭан

subsequently; following in time; later than

-rraar- (postbase used with subordinative mood endings)

close the barn door after the horse has bolted

close the stable door after the horse has been stolen

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

After your bad behaviour, you will be punished.

Subsequently to; following in time; later than.

בְּעִקְבוֹת (b'ikvót, literally “on the heels of, in the footsteps of”)

כְּתוֹצָאָה מ־ (k'totsa'á me-, literally “as a result of”)

I’m not putting you in charge again after the last disaster.

After all that has happened, he is still my friend.

I can’t believe that, after all our advice against gambling, you walked into that casino!

I'm tired of picking up after you. Why can't you clean your own messes?

(often with verbs related to cleaning or tidying) Subsequently to the actions of (someone), in order to remedy a situation.

day after day, time after time, mile after mile, beer after beer, smile after smile

(in reduplicative expressions) Repeatedly, seemingly in a sequence without end.

I was after finishing my dinner when there was a knock on the door. [= I had just finished my dinner when ...]

He was after walking on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before, all the way from the County Limerick, where his brother, Father John, has a parish; and you may believe, the poor man was tired

1875, Patrick Kennedy, Evenings in the Duffrey, page 283:

Mother: Let him get away out of this now, himself and his share of songs. Look at the way he has your bib destroyed that I was after washing in the morning!

1906, Lady Gregory, “A Miracle Play”, in The Shanachie, volume 1:

When I woke up it was black-dark and the music was after stopping. I could taste the bread I was after eating in the dream, as sweet and luscious as any I ever knew

2004, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, page 40:

He asked directions to the dairy those milk cans had shown up late at. Corrigan pointed back the way he'd come and explained, “You'd have been after riding past their loading platform because they don't have their sign overlooking where the train would be after stopping.

2004, Tabor Evans, Longarm and the Great Milk Train Robbery:

"Yes. And where were you when the flood broke loose?" / "I would be most of the way to the Old House then. O'Loughlin was after running in wild to tell me he was hearing the Banshee out at The Old House, […]."

2008, M. P. Shiel, The Black Box, page 45:

(Ireland, Newfoundland, usually preceded by a form of be, followed by an -ing form of a verb) Used to indicate recent completion of an activity.

We had a few beers after the game.

The time is a quarter after eight.

The Cold War began shortly after WWII.

After you with the salt and pepper.

I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

After early sparring, Spurs started to take control as the interval approached and twice came close to taking the lead. Terry blocked Rafael van der Vaart's header on the line and the same player saw his cross strike the post after Adebayor was unable to apply a touch.

2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC:

From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:


next

From Middle English nexte, nexste, nixte, from Old English nīehsta, nīehste, etc., inflected forms of nīehst (“nearest, next”), superlative form of nēah (“nigh”) (the comparative would become near), corresponding to Proto-Germanic *nēhwist (“nearest, closest”); equivalent to nigh + -est. Cognate with Saterland Frisian naist (“next”), Dutch naast (“next to”), German nächst (“next”), Danish næste (“next”), Swedish näst (“next”), Icelandic næst (“next”), Persian نزد (nazd, “near, with”).

neest (alternative dialectal)
neist (alternative Scotland)
nex (alternative archaic)
nex' (alternative dialectal)

A prophet I, Madam; and I speak the truth the next way: […]

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

The road to resolution, lies by doubt:
"The next way home's the farthest way about."

1777, Francis Quarles, Emblems Divine and Moral: Together with Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man, page 152, epigram 2:

Nearest in place or position, having nothing similar intervening; adjoining.

(obsolete) Most direct, or shortest or nearest in distance or time.

következő

of minutes, hours, days and other time units


next

pastaj

In a time, place or sequence closest or following

They live in the next closest house.

It's the next best thing to ice cream.

In a time, place, rank or sequence closest or following.

First we removed all the handles; next, we stripped off the old paint.

(conjunctive) So as to follow in time or sequence something previously mentioned.


half past

/ˈhɑːˌpɑːst/

My train's supposed to arrive at 2. Let's plan on meeting at half past. -Sure, see you at half (past) two then.

السَّاعَة وَالنِّصْف

"half past one" as example of usage in other languages

και μισή (kai misí, literally “and half”)

μία και μισή (mía kai misí, literally “one and half”)

μιάμιση f (miámisi, literally “one (and) half”)

пів на дру́гу (piv na drúhu, literally “half onto the second hour”) (used with the following hour)


age

en-noun

age (countable and uncountable, plural ages)

From Middle English age, Old French aage, eage, edage, from an assumed Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, derived from Latin aetātem, itself derived from aevum (“lifetime”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vital force”). Compare French âge. Displaced native Old English ieldu.
The verb is from Middle English agen, from the noun. Originally found mostly as a participial adjective, probably an adjective in -ed, derived from the noun, reanalyzed to create a verb; perhaps modeled on such pairs as Latin senēscō (seneō; verb) / senex (adjective) and Middle French vieillir (verb) / vieil (adjective). Also compare Old French se aagier, eogier (“become of age”).

вре́мя

used in its plural form времена (vremena)

век

especially to indicate particular century

поколе́ние

people who live during a particular period

the age of Pericles; the age of the dinosaurs

(countable) A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.

The time or era in history when someone or something was alive or flourished.

The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age.

(countable) A great period in the history of the Earth.

դարաշրջան

The Tithonian Age was the last in the Late Jurassic Epoch.

(countable, geology) The shortest geochronologic unit, being a period of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of an epoch (or sometimes a subepoch).

the golden age of cinema; the first age of colonialism; a bygone age

Encircling the marble altar was a congregation of leering shamen. Eerie chants of a bygone age, originating unknown eons before the memory of man, were being uttered from the buried recesses of the acolytes' deep lings ^([sic]).

1970, Jim Theis, “The Eye of Argon”, in OSFAN, volume 10, Chapter 3½, page 33:

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel: The world’s thirst for oil could be nearing a peak. That is bad news for producers, excellent for everyone else.”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 2013-08-01:

It’s been an age since we last saw you.


to

From Middle English to, from Old English tō, from Proto-Germanic *tō ~ *ta, from Proto-Indo-European *de ~ *do (“to”). Cognate with Scots tae, to (“to”), North Frisian to, tö, tu (“to”), Saterland Frisian tou (“to”), Low German to (“to”), Dutch toe, te (“to”), German zu (“to”), West Frisian ta (“to”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian ndaj (“towards”), Irish do (“to, for”), Breton da (“to, for”), Welsh i (“to, for”), Russian до (do, “to”). Doublet of too.

uses the dative case or նկատմամբ (nkatmamb)

(first number in genitive case) suhde (second number in illative case) (e.g. yhden suhde yhteen ~ one to one)

(ordinal number of the exponent in illative case)

ב־

written together with the following word

(ordinal number of the exponent in superessive case)

-ஆக

Rarely used, in contrast with "time following" words such as quarter past and half past.

What's the time? – It's quarter to four in the afternoon (or 3:45 pm).

It’s quarter to (3:45, or 4:45, or whatever time ending in 45 would make the most sense)

(time) Preceding (the stated hour).
(informal) With implied hour.

Preceding (the stated hour).
With implied hour.


future

en-noun

future (countable and uncountable, plural futures)

From Middle English future, futur, from Old French futur, from Latin futūrus, irregular future active participle of sum (“I am”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, be”). Cognate with Old English bēo (“I become, I will be, I am”). More at be. Displaced native Old English tōweard, which took on a different meaning as toward, and Middle English afterhede (“future”, literally “afterhood”) in the given sense.

noncog

This solitary attitude stems in part from a deep sense of fatalism and futility, a profound social effect of the genophage that caused krogan numbers to dwindle to a relative handful. Not only are they angry that the entire galaxy seems out to get them, the krogan are also generally pessimistic about their race's chances of survival. The surviving krogan see no point to building for the future; there will be no future. The krogan live with an attitude of "kill, pillage, and be selfish, for tomorrow we die."

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Krogan: Culture Codex entry:

The time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced.


annually

The Sunshine Festival is held annually, at the end of May.

Minimum age of Maiasaura individuals was determined by counting the number of annually deposited lines of arrested growth (see [10 –12 ] for descriptions of skeletochronology methods).

2015 July 9, “First Reported Cases of Biomechanically Adaptive Bone Modeling in Non-Avian Dinosaurs”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:


monthly

It's time give the dog its monthly bath.

all of these services, including mSpy, function with the same kind of predatory subscription scheme, luring you in with free trials that autorenew as abhorrently expensive monthly or yearly subscriptions. canceling the service requires reaching out to support, so users are typically unable to avoid overrunning the trial.

2024 June 9, maia arson crimew, “israeli national police found trying to purchase stalkerware”, in maia blog:


monthly

Rent must be paid monthly.


monthly

monthlies (plural)
mon. (alternative abbreviation)

Japanese: マンスリー

Of the 10 monthlies with the worst declines in January, four were Condé Nast magazines: Wired, Architectural Digest, Vogue and Lucky.

2009 January 5, Stephanie Clifford, “Prominent Magazines Lose Weight, Shedding Nearly Half Their Ads”, in New York Times:

A publication that is published once a month.

hileroko

a publication that is published once a month

Katherine assumed she was having her monthly. She could recall times when her own monthly was so intense that it showed on her face.

2008, Monica Dixon, Through Closed Eyes, page 230:


weekly

From Middle English wekely, weikly (adverb), equivalent to week + -ly (adverbial suffix) or week + -ly (adjectival suffix). Compare Dutch wekelijks (“weekly”), German wöchentlich (“weekly”), Danish ugentlig (“weekly”), Norwegian ukentlig (“weekly”), Icelandic vikulega (“weekly”), Swedish veckovis (“weekly”).

She visits her mother weekly.


weekly

He's going for his weekly check-up at the hospital.

In summer, we cut the grass on a weekly basis.

In Virginia, gone are the weekly outings to Walmart to stock up on provisions; to El Ranchito, the Mexican convenience store, to buy shell-shaped concha pastries; and to the laundromat to machine wash heavily soiled garments.

2020 October 19, Miriam Jordan, “Migrant Workers Restricted to Farms Under One Grower’s Virus Lockdown”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2020-10-19:


weekly

Japanese: ウィークリー (wīkurī)

A publication that is published once a week.


quarterly

“We’re hoping (that) getting the message out in the quarterlies is going to teach people, as well as their supervisors … you can’t do this stuff,” FBI assistant director Candice Will told CNN this week.

2013 February 22, Scott Zamost and Drew Griffin, “FBI battling ‘rash of sexting’ among its employees”, in CNN:

A periodical publication that appears four times per year.


tide

From Middle English tyde, tide, tyd, tid (“time”), from Old English tīd (“time”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīdi, from Proto-Germanic *tīdiz (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *déh₂itis (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to time.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots tide, tyde (“tide”), North Frisian tid (“time”), West Frisian tyd, tiid (“time, while”), Dutch tijd (“time”), Dutch tij, getij (“tide of the sea”), Afrikaans tyd (“time”), Low German Tied, Tiet (“time”), Low German Tide (“tide of the sea”), German Zeit (“time”), German Tide, Gezeiten (“tide of the sea”), Danish tid (“time”), Swedish tid (“time”), Icelandic tíð (“time”), Albanian ditë (“day”), Old Armenian տի (ti, “age”), Northern Kurdish dem (“time”).

Southern US, African-American Vernacular

[...] and rest their weary limbs a tide.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza xxix:

Which, at th'appointed tyde, / Each one did make his Bryde

at the tide / Of Christ his birth

1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the year MDCXLVIII:

What is singular too, the spademen seem to work lazily; they will not work double-tides, even for offer of more wages, though their tide is but seven hours[.]

1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

(chronology, obsolete, except in liturgy) Time, notably anniversary, period or season linked to an ecclesiastical feast.

getijde

time, notably liturgical anniversary or season


since

From Middle English syns, synnes, contraction of earlier sithens, sithence, from sithen (“after, since”) ( + -s, adverbial genitive suffix), from Old English sīþþan, from the phrase sīþ þǣm (“after/since that (time)”), from sīþ (“since, after”) + þǣm dative singular of þæt. Cognate with Dutch sinds (“since”), German seit (“since”), Danish siden (“since”), Icelandic síðan (“since”) Scots syne (“since”).

I met him last year, but haven't seen him since.

A short/long time since


since

since Adam was an oakum boy in Chatham Dockyard

I'd known her only since the previous year, so from/since the moment we got married we’ve quarrelled.

I'd been working since six o’clock, and I was getting tired.

Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.

2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:

Since the 1980s, computers have had increasing roles in all aspects of human life—including an involvement in criminal acts.

2013 September-October, Simson Garfinkel, “Digital Forensics”, in American Scientist:

From: referring to a period of time ending in the present and defining it by the point in time at which it started, or the period in which its starting point occurred.

Continuously during that period of time.

"Mujtahidd" has attracted almost 300,000 followers since the end of last year, when he began posting scandalous claims about the Saudi elite.

2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:

At certain points during that period of time.


since

I have loved you since I first met you.

I've known her since I've lived in her street, but I've not seen her out of the house since her husband died.

He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:


UTC

A compromise initialism between English CUT (“Coordinated Universal Time”) and French TUC (“Temps Universel Coordonné”), unofficially giving “Universal Time Coordinated” and “Universel Temps Coordonné”.

Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time

Coordinated Universal Time, which is the international standard for civil time and the Internet.


while

en-noun

while (plural (archaic or informal) whiles)

From Middle English whyle, from Old English hwīl, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīlu, from Proto-Germanic *hwīlō (compare Dutch wijl, Low German Wiel, German Weile, Danish hvile (“rest”), Norwegian Bokmål hvile (“rest”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Cognate with Albanian sillë (“breakfast”), Latin tranquillus, Sanskrit चिर (cirá), Persian شاد (šâd).

مُدَّة

even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while

even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while

even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while

An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.


hitherto

[ˈhɪðəˌtʰuː]

[ˌhɪðəˈtʰuː]

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hitherto.wav

From Middle English hiderto, corresponding to hither + to.

The exhaustless conjecturings of that evening's full conversation, made such of the small party, as had hitherto been strangers, well acquainted with each other's turn of mind[…]

1830, Anna Maria Porter, The Barony, volume 3, page 460:

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

1910 [1848 February 21], Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, chapter I, in Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & company, page 12:

The results of this study argue for a greater endonormativity in Indian English than has hitherto been recognised.

2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 124:

North of Tain [...], the line reaches the southern shore of Dornoch Firth. Here, the railway and the A9 trunk road, which have hitherto run close together, diverge.

2021 October 20, Paul Stephen, “Leisure and pleasure on the Far North Line”, in RAIL, number 942, page 49:

(formal, also law) Up to this or that time or point.

1. Scottish2. from Middle English mid3. old dialectal form


when

From Middle English when(ne), whan(ne), from Old English hwonne, from Proto-West Germanic *hwannē, from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷís (interrogative base).
Cognate with Scots whan (“when”), Dutch wanneer (“when”), wan (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌽 (ƕan, “when, how”), Latin quandō (“when”). More at who.
Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of "say when" (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as "say [the word] when".

nuarin

used when the expected answer will happen in the future

kasuarin

used when the expected answer has already happened

I recall when they were called the Greys.

Next year is when we elect a new mayor.

(fused relative) The time at, on or during which.


when

I am here till Friday, when [i.e. at which time] I leave for Senegal.

I was just walking down the street, when [i.e. at which time] all of a sudden it started to rain.

I am at London only to provide for Monday, when I shall use that favour which my Lady Bedford hath afforded me, of giving her name to my daughter; which I mention to you, […]

1839, John Donne, The Works of John Donne: Sermons, Letters, Poems, page 310:

He sat at the door of his kitchen watching, and seeing there was nothing else for it we buckled to and soon had the job done; when we were admitted to the kitchen and given a really good meal.

1929, Donald John Munro, The Roaring Forties and After, page 38:


when

Since when do I need your permission?

[...] ſhortly [...] I'le reſolue you [...] / Theſe happend accidents: till when, be cheerefull [...]

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 18, column 2:

Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse
A great deep cup with heav'nly nectar fill'd,
The greatest, deepest cup in Jove's great house,
(For Jove himself had so expressly will'd)
He drank off all, nor let one drop be spill'd;
Since when, his brain that had before been dry,
Became the well-spring of all poetry.

1831 (published), John Davies, Orchestra Or, a Poem of Dancing, in Robert Southey, Select Works of the British Poets: From Chaucer to Jonson, with Biographical Sketches, page 706

[This] we imagined might have been owing to some accidental condition of the system, or perhaps idiosyncracy; this led us to a second trial, but we experienced the same inconveniences, since when, we have altogether abandoned their use.

1833, William Potts Dewees, A Treatise on the Diseases of Females, page 495::

So we combined the Kocher-Langenbeck and iliofemoral approach until 1965, since when we have combined the ilioinguinal and Kocher-Langenbeck approaches.

2012, Emile Letournel, Robert Judet, Fractures of the Acetabulum, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 385:


when

A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.

For the moment, suffice it to say that the stories told through the whens and hows of building a scene differentiate individual desires and needs more clearly than shared speech was up to then able to communicate.

2008, Paolo Aite, Lanscapes of the Psyche, Ipoc Press, →ISBN, page 151:


chronology

en-noun

chronology (countable and uncountable, plural chronologies)

From chrono- (“relating to time”) + -logy (“study of, account of”), after New Latin chronologia from Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”) + λόγος (lógos, “reason, explanation”). Literally "time reason" in Modern Greek.

confix

The film's chronology is not entirely obvious, but can be worked out by the clothes the characters are wearing in the scenes.

(countable) An arrangement of events into chronological order; called a timeline when involving graphical elements.


common

en-adj

common (comparative more common or commoner, superlative most common or commonest)

commoner (common comparative)
most common (superlative)
commonest (superlative)

rare

antonym(s) of “occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity”

From Middle English comun, from Anglo-Norman comun, from Old French comun (rare in the Gallo-Romance languages, but reinforced as a Carolingian calque of Proto-West Germanic *gamainī (“common”) in Old French), from Latin commūnis (“common, public, general”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moy-ni-s (“held in common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange, change”). Displaced native Middle English imene, ȝemǣne (“common, general, universal”) (from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English mene, mǣne (“mean, common”) (also from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English samen, somen (“in common, together”) (from Old English samen (“together”)). Doublet of gmina and mean.

epicè

grammar: of the gender resulting from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine genders

gender of coalescence of masculine of feminine

common knowledge, common decency, common sense

No man of common humanity, no man who had any value for his character, could be capable of it.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 197:

Of a quality: existing among virtually all people; universal.


then

From Middle English then(ne), than(ne), from Old English þonne, þanne, þænne (“then, at that time”), from Proto-West Germanic *þan, from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that (time), then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”).
Cognate with Dutch dan (“then”), German dann (“then”), Swedish då (“then”), Icelandic þá (“then”). Doublet of than.

inh

He was happy then.

And the Canaanite was then in the land.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 12:6:

In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts,[…], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

The country was shaken by the then-recent assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, which happened against the background of profound racial tensions, stark economic inequality and growing opposition to the Vietnam War.

2022 January 21, Jacopo Prisco, “Striking photographs show ‘America in Crisis’”, in CNN:

That’s a nice shirt, but then, so is the other one.

(sequence) At the same time; on the other hand.


then

He had met his then girlfriend when he had just started university. The relationship ended unhappily when the girlfriend complained that he never wanted to go out.

2011, Alessandra Lemma, Mary Target, Peter Fonagy, Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy: A Clinician's Guide, page 124:

It’s been nearly four years since China put tariffs on American-grown soybeans during a tit-for-tat trade war with then-President Donald Trump – and they remain in place despite the change in administrations.

2022 May 8, Katie Lobosco, “Trump’s trade war looms over soybean farmers 4 years later”, in CNN:

Four years ago, 57 million tuned in to the only vice presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle between Harris and then-Vice President Mike Pence.

2024 October 2, Brian Stelter, “43 million watched Walz-Vance VP debate, in significant drop from 2020 matchup”, in CNN:


then

It will be finished before then.


before

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Inherited from Middle English before /bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

inh+

I want this done before Monday.

We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:


before

I've never done this before.

This achievement far exceeded anything that had come before.

All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:


before

Brush your teeth before you go to bed.

But before this elaborate treatise can become of universal use and ornament to my native country, two points[…] are absolutely necessary.

1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page xiv:

Stephen Ward then had to time his tackle excellently to deny Tarmo Kink as the Wolves winger slid the ball out of play before the Estonian could attempt to beat Given.

2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport:


ephemeral

From New Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ἐφήμερος (ephḗmeros), the more common form of ἐφημέριος (ephēmérios, “of, for, or during the day, living or lasting but for a day, short-lived, temporary”), from ἐπί (epí, “on”) + ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”).

Something which lasts for a short period of time.


ephemeral

en-adj

ephemeral (comparative more ephemeral, superlative most ephemeral)

more ephemeral (comparative)
most ephemeral (superlative)

1821-1822, Vicesimus Knox, Remarks on the tendency of certain Clauses in a Bill now pending in Parliament to degrade Grammar Schools
Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.

sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal, efficacy

1853, James Stephen, Lecture on the right use of Books:

It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows.

1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 9, in Frankenstein, archived from the original on 2012-04-03:


longevity

en-noun

longevity (countable and uncountable, plural longevities)

longevities (plural)
longævity (alternative archaic)

[lɒŋˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ɾi]

Early 17th century, learned borrowing from Latin longaevitās, from longaevus (“ancient, aged”) + -itās. The first part is related with English long and this association led to the alternative pronunciation with /ŋ/.

lbor

A ‘postdating’ is an example of the use of a lexical item at a later date than currently recorded and these are important in establishing the longevity of use of a term and whether or not it has become obsolete.

2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 255:


procrastination

en-noun

procrastination (usually uncountable, plural procrastinations)

/pɹəʊˌkɹæs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/

From Middle French procrastination, from Latin prōcrāstinātiō, from prōcrāstinō (“procrastinate”), from prō + crāstinus (“of tomorrow”), from crās (“tomorrow”).

Procrastination is the thief of time; year after year it steals until all are fled.

1742, [Edward Young], “Night the First”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC:

The act of postponing, delaying or putting off, especially habitually or intentionally.

uitstel

dejar algo para más tarde, para mañana...


throw

From Middle English, from Old English þrāh, þrāg (“space of time, period, while”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (þragjan, “to run”).

Downe himselfe he layd
 Vpon the grassie ground, to sleepe a throw;
 The cold earth was his couch, the hard steele his pillow.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:


era

[ˈɪə̯.ɹə ~ ˈɪː.ɹə]

[ˈi̞ə̯.ɹə ~ ˈiː.ɹə]

[ˈɛ̝.ɹə ~ ˈe̞ː.ɹə]

Borrowed from Late Latin aera. Sense 3 popularized by Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.

Even in an era when individuality in dress is a cult, his clothes were noticeable. He was wearing a hard hat of the low round kind favoured by hunting men, and with it a black duffle-coat lined with white.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.

2012 January 18, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2012-04-04, page 87:

A time period of indeterminate length, generally more than one year.

in my Taylor Swift era

(informal) An indefinite period of time in one’s life characterized by a particular interest.


near

en-adj

near (comparative nearer, superlative nearest)

nearer (comparative)
nearest (superlative)

off

antonym(s) of “side of an animal or vehicle”

From Middle English nere, ner, from Old English nēar (“nearer”, comparative of nēah (“nigh”), the superlative would become next), influenced by Old Norse nær (“near”), both originating from Proto-Germanic *nēhwiz (“nearer”), comparative of the adverb *nēhw (“near”), from the adjective *nēhwaz, ultimately from Pre-Proto-Germanic *h₂nḗḱwos, a lengthened-grade adjective derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to reach”).
Cognate with Old Frisian niār (“nearer”), Dutch naar (“to, towards”), German näher (“nearer”), Danish nær (“near, close”), Norwegian nær (“near, close”) Swedish nära (“near, close”). See also nigh.
Near appears to be derived from (or at the very least influenced by) the North Germanic languages; compare Danish nær (“near, close”), Norwegian nær (“near, close”) Swedish nära (“near, close”), as opposed to nigh, which continues the inherited West Germanic adjective, like Dutch na (“close, near”), German nah (“close, near, nearby”), Luxembourgish no (“nearby, near, close”). Both, however, are ultimately derived from the same Proto-Germanic root: *nēhw (“near, close”).

cog

The end is near.

We're getting near to Xmas.


near

At or towards a position close in space or time.

قَرِيبًا

at or towards a position close in space or time


near

The voyage was near completion.


continuous

From Latin continuus, from contineō (“hold together”). Displaced native Old English singal.

continuous erythropoietin receptor activator

mathematical analysis
mathematical analysis

(mathematical analysis, of a function) Such that, for every x in the domain, for each small open interval D about f(x), there's an interval containing x whose image is in D.


temporarily

/ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/

Necromancers were thought to have the power of restoring activity to the dead, either temporarily or permanently[.]

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 52:

The committee also decided that the remains of President Chiang will be entombed temporarily by Tzu Lake, at Tahsi township of Taoyuan County in northern Taiwan, and will be buried on the mainland after it is recovered.

1975 April 13, “Late President funeral service set for April 16”, in Free China Weekly, volume XVI, number 14, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 1:

The New York Post also temporarily took down and then revised and republished an article about the Fox reporter’s exchange with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday.

2021 April 27, Daniel Dale, “New York Post temporarily deletes, then edits false story that claimed Harris’ book was given out in migrant ‘welcome kits’”, in CNN:

For a limited period of time; not permanently.


Sabbath

From Middle English sabat, sabbat, sabath, from Old English sabat and Old French sabbat, both from Latin sabbatum, from Ancient Greek σάββατον (sábbaton, “Sabbath”), from Hebrew שַׁבָּת (shabát, “Sabbath”), with the spelling ending in -th, probably influenced by the traditional transliteration of the Hebrew as shabbāth, being attested since the 14th century and widespread since the 16th. Doublet of Shabbat. Possibly from the Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest")


forever

/fəˈɹɛvə(ɹ)/

Univerbation of for ever, from Middle English for ever, for evere. By surface analysis, for + ever. First attested in the late 14c., and first attested in the late 17c. as one word. Noun first attested in 1858.

for ever (alternative British)
fore'er (alternative)
for e'er (alternative)
Forever (alternative noun poetic)

I shall love you forever.

Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it. When a ball is struck on the surface of the earth, the friction of the earth and the resistance of the air soon stop its motion.

1839, Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy, page 95:

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.

1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four:

(duration) For all time, for all eternity; for a lifetime; for an infinite amount of time.

ለዘለዓለም

for all time, for all eternity; for an infinite amount of time

για πάντα (gia pánta, literally “for always”)

We had to wait forever to get inside.

That was forever ago.

She and Serena had been friends forever. Or nearly forever: forty-two years, beginning with Miss Kimmel's first grade.

1988, Anne Tyler, chapter 1, in Breathing Lessons:

Anything in the world of transport takes forever to do, and costs far too much.

2024 February 7, Lee Waters tells Conrad Landin, “A mission to improve transport for Wales”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 35:

(duration, colloquial, hyperbolic) For a very long time, a seeming eternity.

eeuwig

(colloquially) for an excessively long time


forever

en-noun

forever (countable and uncountable, plural forevers)

forevers (plural)
for ever (alternative British)
fore'er (alternative)
for e'er (alternative)
Forever (alternative noun poetic)

/fəˈɹɛvə(ɹ)/

I haven't seen him in forever!

It took me forever to make up my mind.

Don't spend forever on the phone!

She should've been here five forevers ago!

It's been a fortnight of forevers since the Braves could count on a late-game comeback.

2001 September, Michael Knisley, “The Braves' last stand”, in Sporting News, volume 225, number 36, page 12:

In the airport, holiday lovers kiss, mouth forevers, the usual argot betrays you. Desire makes love dull.

2007, Ruth O'Callaghan, Where acid has etched:

(countable, colloquial) An extremely long time.

Sure, I'd be happy to meet with you on the 12th of forever.

(uncountable, colloquial or poetic) A mythical time in the future that will never come.


centennial

From Late Latin centennis (“100-year”) + -al.

a centennial jubilee    a centennial celebration


GMT

Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time#English


intermission

/ɪntɚˈmɪʃən/

From Latin intermissiō, from intermittō.

We ordered some drinks for the intermission.

The line turns a sharp right-angle to the north to circumvent the town, and then plunges straight into the 1 in 50, which lasts for nearly 20 miles with few intermissions, and some pitches of 1 in 40.

1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 265:

A break, especially between two performances or sessions, such as at a concert, play, seminar, or religious assembly.


twice

From earlier twise, from Middle English twies, twiȝes, from Old English twīġes (“twice”), from twīwa, twīġa ("twice"; whence Middle English twie (“twice”)) + -es (adverbial genitive ending). Related to Saterland Frisian twäie (“twice”), Middle Low German twiges, twies (“twice”), Middle High German zwies (“twice”). Compare also twi- meaning two or both.

gloss

"twice"; whence Middle English <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">twie</i> (“twice”)

any day of the week and twice on Sundays

even a stopped clock is right twice a day

every day of the week and twice on Sundays

lightning does not strike twice in the same place

lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place

lightning never strikes the same place twice

lightning never strikes twice in the same place

money won is twice as sweet as money earned

the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long

You should brush your teeth twice a day.

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. (1947, Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, Section 1)

I've done with my tirade. The world was gone; / The twice two thousand, for whom earth was made, / Were vanish'd to be what they call alone

1824, Lord Byron, “Canto the Thirteenth”, in Don Juan:

He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Santa Claus is coming to town / He’s making a list, / And checking it twice, / He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice / Santa Claus is coming to town

1934, J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”:


thrice

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English thrice, thries (“three times, thrice; a third time; repeated three times”), from earlier thrī, thrīe (“three times, thrice; a third time”) (from Old English þriwa, þreowa) + -es (suffix forming adverbs of time, place, and manner) (from Old English -es (suffix forming adverbs)). The word is cognate with Old Frisian thria ("thrice"; > Saterland Frisian träie (“thrice”)), Middle Low German drîes (“thrice”), Middle High German drīes, drīs (“thrice”).

gloss

"thrice"; > Saterland Frisian <i class="Latn mention" lang="stq">träie</i> (“thrice”)

Thrice ore the caddow I mine armes outſpred: / Thrice did I fall, before I once could riſe: / Leaning vpon mine elbow for a reſt, / Nodding, I knockt my chin againſt my breſt. // Then ſigh’d, ſlipt downe, and twixt the ſheete and pillow / I nuzled in, joyn’d knees and chin together: / I dream’d I wore a garland of greene willow. / But ſnuffling low, I prickt me with a fether; / So wakt, the bolſter for my backe I choſe, / And yawning thrice, I rub’d mine eyes and roſe.

1601, Io[hn] Weeuer [i.e., John Weever], The Mirror of Martyrs, or The Life and Death of that Thrice Valiant Captaine, and Most Godly Martyre Sir Iohn Old-castle Knight Lord Cobham, [London]: Printed by V[alentine] S[immes] for William Wood, →OCLC:

The weyward Siſters, hand in hand, / Poſters of the Sea and Land, / Thus doe goe, about, about, / Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, / And thrice againe, to make vp nine, / Peace, the Charme’s wound vp.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 132, column 1:

And the second time the cocke crew : and Peter called to minde the word that Jesus ſaid unto him, Before the cocke crow twiſe, thou ſhalt denie me thriſe. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 14:72:

How far might I have been on my way by this time! I am made to tread thoſe ſteps thrice over, which I needed not to have trod but once: Yea, now alſo I am like to be benighted, for the day is almoſt ſpent.

1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 47:

Once, twice, thrice, I met Young Lubin on the Green, / once, twice, thrice, Young Lubin he met me, / the firſt time I beheld the Lad he made a humble bow, / I bluſh'd and hung my ſilly head and felt I don't know how, […]

[1805?], [James] Hook, Once, Twice, Thrice, Sung with Great Applause by Mrs. Bland at Vauxhall Gardens, London: Printed for J. Dale, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, pages 4–5:

Roger Wildrake, also, who had twice or thrice put to his eyes what remained of a kerchief, interested by the lady's evident distress, though unable to comprehend the mysterious cause, hastened to assist the divine in supporting so fair a burthen.

1826, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 107:

And then he [Bedivere] threw the sword into the water as far as he might, and there came an arm and a hand above the water, and met it and caught it, and so shook it thrice and brandished. And then the hand vanished away with the sword in the water.

1918, Thomas Malory, “The Sword Excalibur”, in William Patten, compiler, Heroes and Heroines of Chivalry (The Junior Classics; IV), New York, N.Y.: P[eter] F[enelon] Collier & Son Corporation, →OCLC, page 29:

Seven hours after giving birth […] Kate [Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge] gave the world a first glimpse of their third child, a new Prince of Cambridge. […] Minutes after the brief photocall, the couple headed home with William [the Duke of Cambridge] emerging with his son in a car seat and holding Kate’s hand. “Thrice the worry now,” a smiling William said, holding up three fingers.

2018 April 24, Richard Palmer, “Royal baby: ‘Thrice the worry now!’: Prince William captures the reality of parenthood”, in The Sunday Express, London, archived from the original on 2018-06-15:

In his young Major League career, Paul Skenes has thrice pitched at least eight innings. In those three outings, he allowed a total of four runs and struck out at least eight batters all three times.

2025 June 4, Alex Stumpf, “'Win or Lose,' Skenes out to control what he can control”, in MLB:

(somewhat dated outside Asia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) Three times.


once

From Middle English ones, from Old English ānes, a remodelling (after ān (“one”)) of ǣnes, itself an extension of ǣne (“once”) with the genitive suffix -es. Compare Old Saxon ēnes (“once”), Old High German eines, einēst (“once”), modern German einst (“once”). More at one (including regarding the development of the pronunciation) and -s.

I have only once eaten pizza.

He was once the most handsome man around.

I once had a motorbicycle.

Once I didn't drive a big car, but now I own an all-terrain 4WD.

Wang notes that flowers have rooted and grow in the area once covered with ice.

Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.

2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:

(temporal location) Formerly; during some period in the past.

The wisdom of God thought fit to acquaint David with that court which we shall once govern.

1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:

If the facts once became known, we'd be in trouble.


never

From Middle English nevere, navere, nævere, from Old English nǣfre (“never”), equivalent to ne + ever.

neuer (alternative obsolete)
ne'er (alternative)
neva (alternative)
nev'r (alternative)
nevah (alternative)
nevuh (alternative)

a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor

never ask the barber if you need a haircut

never put off until tomorrow what you can do today

the course of true love never did run smooth

the wolf may lose his teeth but never his nature

you never know what you've got till it's gone

you never miss the water till the well runs dry

you never miss the water until the well runs dry

I finally finished, and I never do wanna do it again.

We were at the same college, but happened never to meet.

I'll never not like you.

Why should I love this Gentleman? Tis odds / He never will affect me;

1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 4:

In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Chapter XXI: A New Departure in Flavorings,
"I never thought you were so fond of Mr. Phillips that you'd require two handkerchiefs to dry your tears just because he was going away," said Marilla.

Never speak of the symptoms of your patient in his presence, unless questioned by the doctor, whose orders you are always to obey implicitly.

1919, B. G. Jefferis, J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health: Sensible Rules for the Nurse:

"You don't believe the Soviet Union is going to reduce its defense budget, do you?" Boggs asked.
Premier Chou didn't wait for the translator to finish. "Never, never, never," he replied in perfect English.

1980, Gerald Ford, “Boyhood—and Beyond”, in A Time to Heal, New York: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 95:

At no time; on no occasion; in no circumstance.

biken biskoazh james

when talking in the future;when talking in the past

ни́кога (níkoga) (not to be used with past simple tense)

ни́вга (nívga) (not to be used with past simple tense)

така и (taka i) (not to be used with future tenses)

There is no jewel, be it of never so rich a price, which I set before this jewel: I mean your love.

1601 November 30, Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I's Farewell Speech:

"He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!--so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!"

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Chapter XIII: The Delights of Anticipation,
I never saw such an infatuated man.

Not at any other time; not on any other occasion; not previously.

The police say I stole the car, but I never did it.

You said you were going to mow the lawn today. – I never!

"You're never going to break in?"
"This instant, if you'll, help me; in five or ten minutes, if you won't."

1905, E. W. Horning, A Thief in the Night:

Well I looked at Jay and I said "hey, did you hear what I just heard?"
He nodded his head and his face turned red and he never said a word

1976, “C.B. Savage”, performed by Rod Hart:

(colloquial) Negative particle (used to negate verbs in the simple past tense; also used absolutely).


free time

I love to play football in my free time.

If you have some free time tomorrow, let’s go and watch a film.


eternal

en-adj

eternal (comparative more eternal, superlative most eternal)

more eternal (comparative)
most eternal (superlative)
æternal (alternative archaic)
æternall (alternative obsolete)
eternall (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English eternal, from Old French eternal, from Late Latin aeternālis, from Latin aeternus (“eternal”), from aevum (“age”). Displaced native Old English ēċe.

hope springs eternal in the human breast

(philosophy) Existing outside time; as opposed to sempiternal, existing within time but everlastingly.


countdown

countdowns (plural)
count down (alternative)
count-down (alternative)

(astronautics) A count backward in fixed units to the time of some event, especially the launch of a space vehicle.

numërim mbrapsht

a count backward to the time of some event


simultaneous

sequential

antonym(s) of “happening at the same moment”

From Medieval Latin simultaneus, from simultim (“at the same time, extended”), from Latin simul (“together, at the same time”); compare similar.

der

As with the Lejeuneaceae, this pattern of massive speciation appears to be correlated with the Cretaceous explosion of the angiosperms and the simultaneous creation of a host of new microenvironments, differing in humidity, light intensity, texture, etc.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, pages 3-4:


simultaneously

The cradle-rocking and the song would cease simultaneously for a moment, and an exclamation at highest vocal pitch would take the place of the melody.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 29:

The hens woke up squawking with terror because they had all dreamed simultaneously of hearing a gun go off in the distance.

1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:


simultaneity

en-noun

simultaneity (countable and uncountable, plural simultaneities)

From simultane(ous) + -ity. Compare French simultanéité.

(music) More than one complete musical texture occurring at the same time. This first appeared in the music of Charles Ives, and is common in the music of Conlon Nancarrow, and others.


yearly

From Middle English yeerly, yerely, from Old English ġēarlīċ, ġērlīċ (“yearly, of the year, annual”), equivalent to year + -ly (adjectival suffix) or -ly (adverbial suffix). Cognate with Scots yerelie (“yearly”), Saterland Frisian jierelk (“yearly”), West Frisian jierliks (“yearly”), Dutch jaarlijks (“yearly”), Afrikaans jaarliks (“yearly”), German jährlich (“yearly”), Danish årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Bokmål årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Nynorsk årleg (“yearly”), Swedish årlig (“yearly”), Icelandic árlegur (“yearly”).

Christmas is a yearly celebration.

We deep-clean the kitchen lustrally, on a five-yearly basis.

all of these services, including mSpy, function with the same kind of predatory subscription scheme, luring you in with free trials that autorenew as abhorrently expensive monthly or yearly subscriptions. canceling the service requires reaching out to support, so users are typically unable to avoid overrunning the trial.

2024 June 9, maia arson crimew, “israeli national police found trying to purchase stalkerware”, in maia blog:


yearly

Something that is published once a year.


perennial

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”)

tilbagevendende

appearing or recurring again and again — see also recurrent

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.

1644 March 8 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 27 February 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 43:

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.

1713, W[illiam] Derham, “[A Survey of the Terraqueous Globe.] The Distribution of the Earth and Waters.”, in Physico-Theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation. […], London: […] W[illiam] Innys, […], →OCLC, book II (Of the Terraqueous Globe It Self, in General), footnote 3, pages 49–50:

It [the pond] is a clear and deep green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in circumference, and contains about sixty-one and a half acres; a perennial spring in the midst of pine and oak woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the clouds and evaporation.

1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 191:

That desert's age the gorge may prove, / Piercing profound the mountain bare; / Yet hardly churned out in the groove / By a perennial wear and tear / Of floods; nay, dry it shows within; / But twice a year the waters flow, / Nor then in tide, but dribbling thin: […]

1876, Herman Melville, “Canto I. In the Mountain.”, in Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], →OCLC, part III (Mar Saba), page 306:

These offshore Sonoman mountains likely formed an orogenic (mountainous) barrier to moisture inland, resulting in a mountain-shadow onshore desert punctuated by regional annual and large basin perennial streams draining into a forearc saline sea.

2012, Chinle Miller, “The Tectonic Forces of the Mesozoic”, in In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition, page 34:

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

целогоди́шен

lasting or remaining active throughout the year, or all the time


biennial

Borrowed from Latin bienni(um) (“two-year period”) [from bis, bi- (“twice”) + annus (“year”)] + -al (suffix forming adjectives). By surface analysis, bi- + -ennial.

bor+

A plant that requires two years to complete its life-cycle, germinating and growing in its first year, then producing its flowers and fruit in its second year, after which it usually dies.


procrastinate

en-verb

procrastinate (third-person singular simple present procrastinates, present participle procrastinating, simple past and past participle procrastinated)

procrastinates (present singular third-person)
procrastinating (participle present)
procrastinated (participle past)
procrastinated (past)

First attested in 1548; from Latin prōcrastinātus, perfect passive participle of prōcrastinō (“defer, put off till tomorrow”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from prō- (“in favor of”) + crāstinus (“of or belonging to tomorrow”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), from crās (“tomorrow”).

He procrastinated until the last minute and had to stay up all night to finish.

(intransitive) To delay taking action; to wait until later.


operating time

en-noun

operating time (countable and uncountable, plural operating times)

käyttöaika

time interval between input/request for service and completion of task

The time interval between the instant of the occurrence of a specified input condition to a system and the instant of completion of a specified operation.

(computing, telecommunications) The time interval between the instant a request for service is received from a user and the instant of final release of all facilities by the user or either of two users.

(telecommunications) In conference calls, the time interval between the instant a request for service is received from one of a group of concurrent users and the instant all but one of the users have released all facilities.


tea

Semantic loan from Chinese 茶 (chá, “tea”).

sl

A moment, a historical unit of time from China, about the amount of time needed to quickly drink a traditional cup of tea. It is now found in Chinese-language historical fiction.


historical

en-adj

historical (comparative more historical, superlative most historical)

more historical (comparative)
most historical (superlative)
historicall (alternative)

From Latin historicus (“historical”) + -al (forming adjectives denoting of or relating to). By surface analysis, history + -ical.

suf

The historical development of skill in foreshortening will be demonstrated in another section. Only the more perfect phases will be treated here.

1913, Herbert J. Spinden, A Study of Maya Art: Its Subject Matter and Historical Development, page 27:

...No studies have investigated the problem’s historic roots. Thus, this paper explores the perspective of “early insiders” through an historical analysis of autobiographies, biographies, and magazine articles written by and about early US newspaper reporters and editors.

2003 June, Denise E. DeLorme et al., “Journalists' Hostility towards Public Relations”, in Public Relations Review, volume 23, number 2:

The idea that hagiography can be used to write about history, but in itself does not contain a historical sense, seems not to be limited to the study of India.

2011, Christian Lee Novetzke, “The theographic and the historiographic in an Indian sacred life story”, in Time, History, and the Religious Imagery in South Asia, page 119:

Of, concerning, or in accordance with the scholarly discipline of history.

Done in the manner of a historian: written as a development over time or in accordance with the historical method.


history

en-noun

history (countable and uncountable, plural histories)

histories (plural)
Hx (alternative)
hx (alternative)
historie (alternative obsolete)
hystory (alternative nonstandard)
hystorie (alternative obsolete)

Pitcairn-Norfolk: histrei

From Middle English historie, from Old French estoire, estorie (“chronicle, history, story”) (French histoire), from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “learning through research”), from ἱστορέω (historéō, “to research, inquire (and) record”), from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “the knowing, wise one”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Doublet of story and storey.
Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John Gower, Confessio Amantis, which was aimed at an educated audience familiar with French and Latin.

der

in all of human history and prehistory

in all recorded history

The portion of the past that is known and recorded by this field of study, as opposed to all earlier and unknown times that preceded it (prehistory).

geskiedenis

branch of knowledge that studies the past


historic

historics (plural)
historick (alternative)
hystoric (alternative)
historique (alternative)

From Latin historicus (“historical”), from Ancient Greek ἱστορικός (historikós, “exact; historical”). Cognate with French historique. By surface analysis, history + -ic.

Before the beginnyng of this historic, I haue thought good by waie of a Proeme, to introduce the wordes of an excellent writer called Lodouicus Caelius Rhodoginus.

1566, William Painter, chapter XI, in The Palace of Pleasure Beautified, volume I:

(obsolete) A history, a non-fiction account of the past.


recent

en-adj

recent (comparative more recent, superlative most recent)

more recent (comparative)
most recent (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin recēns (genitive recentis).

Finding it now means it was produced in more recent times, in astronomical terms.

2020 October 4, Evan Gough, “We Now Have Proof a Supernova Exploded Perilously Close to Earth 2.5 Million Years Ago”, in Science Alert:

(sciences) Particularly in geology, palaeontology, and astronomy: having occurred a relatively short time ago, but still potentially thousands or even millions of years ago.


bimonthly

The organization's bimonthly meetings allow for two discussions each quarter.

His bimonthly appointment was almost due.


bimonthly

The organization's board of directors meets bimonthly.

They checked on his progress bimonthly.


annual

First attested around 1382, borrowed from Late Latin annuālem, annuālis, related to Latin annālis, adjective form of annus (“year”). Used to categorize plants since 1710.

an annual general meeting; an annual publication

Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.

2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:


triannually

(proscribed) Occurring every three years; triennially.


decennial

From Latin decennialis, from decennium (“10-year period”) + -ālis, from decennis (“10-year”) + -ium (“-ium”, suffix forming abstract nouns), from decem (“ten”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives).

Roman coins mentioning the vota publica for Macrinus are RIC IV.1 5–13; on vota publica for the decennials and vicennials of emperors in the 2nd and 3rd c. ad, see Chastagnol 1984.

2022, Martin Hallmannsecker, Roman Ionia..., p. 110

(historical) Synonym of decennalia, the festival and religious ritual held in the 10th year of a Roman emperor's reign.


decennial

Of or related to a ten-year period, as a term of office.


millennial

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin mīllennium (“millennium”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming nouns). The English word may be analysed as millennium + -al or milli- (prefix meaning ‘thousand’) + -ennial (suffix meaning ‘years’).
Sense 5 (“of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century”) was coined by the American authors William Strauss (1947–2007) and Neil Howe (born 1951) in their book Generations (1991): see the quotations.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

coinage

Michael Dimock (2019 January 17) “Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins”, in Pew Research Center, archived from the original on 2020-06-01.

semiannual · annual · biennial · triennial · quadrennial · quinquennial

quintennial · sextennial · septennial · octennial · novennial · decennary

decennial · sesquidecennial · centennial · sesquicentennial · bicentennial · tricentennial · quadricentennial · bimillennial · trimillennial · quadrimillennial · decamillennial

But I would urge you to resist the temptation to swoon into "Waking Life" as though it were a dizzy millennial throwback to a 60's trip movie.

2001 October 12, Stephen Holden, “Surreal adventures somewhere near the land of Nod”, in The New York Times (E section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-17, page 15:

As for Mr. [Thomas] Pynchon's conjuring of millennial New York, it's a total mishmash.

2013 September 10, Michiko Kakutani, “A calamity tailor-made for Internet conspiracy theories”, in The New York Times (C section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-06, page 1:

Occurring at, or relating to, the beginning or end of a millennium.

vuosituhantinen

occurring at, or relating to, the beginning or end of a millennium

the millennial generation

He was suffering from a typical millennial problem: Which is the correct emoji to use?

Boomers played cassettes in their cars and popularized FM radio. Thirteeners love their compact disks. Today's electronics industry is abuzz with talk of the new digital technology that awaits Millennial teenagers.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Past as Prologue”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 352:

When the staccato, Neptunes-ian single "Boyfriend" was released in March, musical prognosticators were quick to peg the album it portended, Believe, as Justin Bieber's Justified, a grown-and-sexy, R&B-centric departure that evolved millennial teenybopper Justin Timberlake into one of the unifying pop-music figures of the aughts.

2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2023-04-05:

Many people, or at least a handful of very loud people, hate to being dubbed Millennial. They see it as derogatory.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

But, while many have jumped to label the astrology boom as another millennial trend, that may not actually be the case.

2018 March 22, Wilder Davies, “Mercury Is Entering Retrograde Again. This Is Why So Many People Care”, in Time:

We make hits / Two broke millennial men / And we'd do it again

2024, “We Make Hits”, in James Smith (lyrics), Where's My Utopia?, performed by Yard Act:

(by extension, originally US, demography) Often capitalized: of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century from around the early 1980s to the mid 1990s (with 1996 births cited as the last Millennial year), and who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E.


millennial

millennials (plural)
Millennial (alternative)

Someday, Boomers hope, Millennials will build according to great ideals their parents can only envision, act on vital issues their parents can only ponder.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Millennial Cycle”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 342:

Meet the Millennials, born in or after 1982—the "Babies on Board" of the early [Ronald] Reagan years, the "Have You Hugged Your Child Today?" sixth graders of the early [Bill] Clinton years, the teens of Columbine, and, this year, the much-touted high school Class of 2000, now invading the nation's campuses.

2000 September, Neil Howe, William Strauss, “The Next Great Generation”, in Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 4:

When we saw Millennials as kids being raised so differently, we could already make an easy prediction. We had seen this dark to bright contrast in child upbringing before many times in American history, so we already foresaw that by the time you got to 2000 you would see huge changes in people in their late teens and early 20s.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, quoting Neil Howe, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

In a bumper for a newsmagazine program, a reporter muses: “[It’s] the year of the yuppie, but what is a yuppie?” That’s right, fellow millennials: Not long ago, young people had so much economic opportunity that their generation was defined by its upward mobility.

2020 June 25, Eve Peyser, “In vintage TV ads, a curious fountain of hope (and cheese)”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-20:

(originally US, demography) Often capitalized: a person from the generation born in the last two decades of the 20th century, from around the early 1980s to the mid-1990s and who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E., characterized by their familiarity with computer technology and poorer financial prospects than their parents.