New York minute

en-noun

New York minute (plural New York minutes)

In a New York minute, everything can change / In a New York minute, you can get out of the rain

1989, Don Henley, “New York Minute”, in The End of the Innocence:

(informal) An instant; an extremely short time.


frequently

en-adv

frequently (comparative more frequently, superlative most frequently)

more frequently (comparative)
most frequently (superlative)

This question arises frequently.

He was enrolled but frequently didn't attend class.

As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.

2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist:


previously

The discovery of a previously unknown species had taken place nearly two years previously.

In the lawsuit, Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with a “large amount of people,” some of whom had not previously been named including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson […].

2019 August 10, Julie Brown, Veronica Penney, Daniel Chang, Sarah Blaskey, “Jeffrey Epstein is gone, but allegations against powerful associates linger”, in Tampa Bay Times:

(with past-tense constructions) At an earlier time; already.


immediately

From Middle English immediatly, equivalent to immediate + -ly.

A tri-tone chime whistle, operated from the cab by a flexible cable passing down the right hand handrail, is mounted on the top of the smokebox immediately behind the chimney.

1951 June, “British Railways Standard Class "5" 4-6-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 399:


biennium

From Latin biennium, from biennis (“2-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns), from bi- (“two”) + annus (“year”), q.v.

The Greeks being taught by their Oracles, that their accuſtomed Sacrifices were to be offered κατά τρία, which they underſtood as if their Year were to be regulated by the Sun, and their Days and Months were to be adjuſted by the motion of the Moon; were always ſolicitous, how by certain Periods they might reduce the diſagreeing motions of the Luminaries to a Third ſomething in which they might agree: Hence in the ancient times they are ſaid to have uſed a Biennium, intercalating every other year: But fault was found with this, and 'twas ſucceeded by a Quadriennium; upon the return of which the Olympic Games were celebrated.

1704, Giles Strauchius [i.e., Aegidius Strauch II], “Of the Lunar Cycle”, in Richard Sault, transl., Breviarium Chronologicum. Or A Treatise Describing the Terms and Most Celebrated Characters, Periods and Epocha’s Used in Chronology. By Giles Strachius, D.D. and Publick Professor in the University of Wittebergh. Now Done into English from the Third Edition, in Latin. By Richard Sault, F.R.S., 2nd corr. and enl. edition, London: Printed for A. Bosvile at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, →OCLC, book II (Of Chronological Characters), § 1, pages 93–94:

No commentator on Herodotus has succeeded in explaining the curious mistake whereby the solar year is made to average 375 days. That Herodotus knew the true solar year was not 375, but more nearly 365 days, is clear from book ii. ch. iv. It is also clear that he must be right as to the fact that the Greeks were in the habit of intercalating a month every other year. This point is confirmed by a passage in Censorinus (De Die Natal. xviii. p. 91), where it is explained that the Greek years were alternately of 12 and 13 months, and that the biennium was called "annus magnus," or τριετηρίς.

1858, Herodotus, George Rawlinson and Henry Rawlinson, translators and editors, “The First Book, Entitled Clio”, in The History of Herodotus. A New English Version, Edited with Copious Notes and Appendices, Illustrating the History and Geography of Herodotus, from the Most Recent Sources of Information; and Embodying the Chief Results, Historical and Ethnographical, which have been Obtained in the Progress of Cuneiform and Hieroglyphical Discovery. … In Four Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, →OCLC, footnote 2, page 178:

During the bienniums 1963–64 and 1965–66, expenditure on regional and inter-regional projects also registered a substantial growth. In fact, the share of regional projects in the total programme during the bienniums 1963–64 and 1965–66 was higher than the 12 per cent deemed desirable by the TAC [Technical Assistance Committee].

2007, Digambar Bhouraskar, “Growth and Structure of EPTA [Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance]”, in United Nations Development Aid: A Study in History and Politics, New Delhi: Academic Foundation, →ISBN, page 138:

Although ideology is related to the propensity for a state to adopt stringent changes to campaign finance law, culture does not have a substantive effect. However, he [Christopher Witko] finds support that a scandal in the previous biennium is associated with changes to campaign finance regulation in the current biennium, in concert with the findings of [Beth] Rosenson (2005) on the adoption of legislative ethics reforms.

2014, Joel W. Paddock, “Local and State Political Parties”, in Donald P. Haider-Markel, editor, The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 231:

Ideology of Republican voters demonstrates a significant, if not enormous, rightward shift during this period. In contrast to Republican legislators, the conservative shifts by Republican voters betided in a few, rather than all, biennia, interrupted by other biennia with no ideological shift.

2016, Manabu Saeki, “Ideology of Partisan Voters and Congressional Members”, in The Phantom of a Polarized America: Myths and Truths of an Ideological Divide, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 58:

A period of two years, particularly for purposes involving intercalation or fiscal calculations.


morrow

From Middle English morwe, morwen, from Old English morgen, from Proto-West Germanic *morgan, *morgin, from Proto-Germanic *murganaz, *murginaz; compare Dutch morgen and German Morgen.
Doublet of morgen and morn. Both morn and morrow continue earlier Middle English morwen (the former through early contraction, the latter through regular reduction of -en).

Two men were walking in the street; one said to the other: “Upon the morrow I will sup with thee.” And the Pestilence grinned a grin that none beheld, baring his dripping teeth, and crept away to see whether upon the morrow those men should sup together.

1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 27:

(archaic or poetic) The next or following day.


morrow

en-verb

morrow (third-person singular simple present morrows, present participle morrowing, simple past and past participle morrowed)

morrows (present singular third-person)
morrowing (participle present)
morrowed (participle past)
morrowed (past)

[…] he did her bidding but hardly touched food; after which he lay at full length on his bed all the night through in cogitation deep until morning morrowed.

1885, Sir Richard Burton, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp:


cyclic

From Ancient Greek κυκλικός (kuklikós). Possibly from cycle + -ic.

(aviation) The flight control used to control a helicopter's direction and rate of horizontal movement by tilting the lift vector of the helicopter's main rotor disk.


ides of March

The 15th of March in the Ancient Roman calendar, on which day Julius Caesar was assassinated.


like clockwork

(simile) With perfect regularity and precision; faultless.


subsequently

It will be recollected that the ill-fated Halloway...distinctly stated the voice of the individual who had approached his post...to have been that of a female, and that the language in which they subsequently conversed was that of the Ottawa Indians.

1832, John Richardson, chapter 7, in Wacousta, volume II:

“There the cause of death was soon ascertained ; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom.[…]”

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

Following, afterwards in either time or place.


subsequent

Borrowed from Middle French subséquent, from Latin subsequentis, form of subsequēns, present participle of
subsequor (“I follow, I succeed”).

fee simple subject to condition subsequent

Growth was dampened by a softening of the global economy in 2001, but picked up in the subsequent years due to strong growth in China.

In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.

2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian:

Following in time; coming or being after something else at any time, indefinitely.


perpetual

/pəˈpɛtʃʊəl/

From Middle English perpetuel, from Old French perpetuel, from Latin perpetuālis (“universal”), from perpetuus, from petō.

perpetual motion machine of the first kind

perpetual motion machine of the second kind

Lasting forever, or for an indefinitely long time.


intermittent

en-adj

intermittent (comparative more intermittent, superlative most intermittent)

more intermittent (comparative)
most intermittent (superlative)

From Middle French intermittent, from Latin intermittens (“sending between”), from prefix inter- (“among, on”) + mittens (“sending”), from mittere (“to send”).

The day was cloudy with intermittent rain.

Intermittent bugs are most difficult to reproduce.

Also bloudletting is good in feuers, whether they be continual or intermittent […]

1564, Philip Moore, chapter 13, in The Hope of Health, London:

[…] the Gift of Prophecy […] was in the mind not as an Inhabitant, but as a Guest; that is, by intermittent Returns and Ecstasies, by Occasional Raptures and Revelations; as is clear from what we read of the Prophets in the Old Testament.

1698, Robert South, Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume 3, London: Thomas Bennet, page 511:

[…] Pale through night’s curtain gleam’d
By fits the lunar intermittent ray,
That quiv’ring serv’d to light his lonely steps

1792, Richard Cumberland, Calvary: or The Death of Christ, London: C. Dilly, Book 5, lines 364-366, p. 164:

[…] by degrees the talk became as flickering and intermittent as the light of the dying fire, which they were too idle to feed with sticks […]

1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 20, in Lud-in-the-Mist, London: Millennium, published 2000, page 193:

[…] three scruffy-looking young men with intermittent facial hair and starvation-symptom physiques.

2015, John Irving, chapter 18, in Avenue of Mysteries, New York: Simon and Schuster, page 238:

Stopping and starting, occurring, or presenting at intervals; coming after a particular time span.


intermittently

The Hariri-Aoun agreement has shown that Hezbollah can bring the national political system to a halt. This happened in the past several years, and it worsened conditions in sectors such as foreign debt, electricity output, rubbish collection, water delivery, and other essential services, to the discomfort of the majority of Lebanese who have spoken out intermittently against the oligarchy of sectarian leaders who rule the country.

2016 October 22, Rami G Khouri, “Lebanese oligarchy preserves its interests once again”, in Aljazeera:


occasionally

en-adv

occasionally (comparative more occasionally, superlative most occasionally)

more occasionally (comparative)
most occasionally (superlative)

From Middle English occasionally, occasionaly, occasyoneely, occasyonly, equivalent to occasional + -ly.

God ſetteth no houres for the morning or evening ſacrifice because they may occaſionally be changed.

1639, Henry Ainsworth, Annotations Upon the Five Books of Moses, the Book of the Psalmes and the Song of Songs, page 177:

Some perhaps worship only on alternate Sundays; others still more occasionally.

1855, Horace Mann, “On the Statistical Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales”, in Journal of the Statistical Society of London, volume 18, number 2, page 152:

The journal, more occasionally, has turned to what might be called "fashionable" themes.

1978, Stephen R. Graubard, “Twenty Years of 'Daedalus'”, in Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume 32, number 3, page 18:

Flames could still be seen from town flaring up occasionally on a hill dotted with emergency vehicles.

2007 August 17, Matt Gouras/AP, “Wildfires Rage in Montana”, in Time:

On occasion: at relatively infrequent intervals, from time to time, sometimes.


office hours

If you need help with the homework, the professor will be holding office hours on Thursday from 7–9pm.

A pre-arranged time when a person whose occupation frequently takes them away from their office during working hours is available in their office to answer questions or provide assistance without the requirement for an appointment.

咨詢時間 /咨询时间

prearranged time when a person is available


off-season

off-seasons (plural)
offseason (alternative)

Alternating off-season and precontest cycles in bodybuilding over a period of years will result in the relatively quick development of a championship physique.

1983, Joe Weider, The Weider System of Bodybuilding, page 4:

That’s why virtually nothing should be off the table this offseason, including the idea of improving at quarterback.

2023 April 5, Jeff Howe, “In Belichick’s pursuit of glory, nothing is off the table, even idea of trading Mac Jones”, in The Athletic:

(sports) A period of time when regular competitions are not being held, or when an athlete is not participating in competitions.


old age

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-old age.wav

From Middle English olde age, eld age; compare earlier Middle English olde elde (“old age”), alderelde (“old age”), equivalent to old + age. Displaced wholly non-native Middle English vilesse (“old age”) (borrowed from Old French villesce, vieillece (“old age”)) and senectute (“old age”) (from Latin senectūs (“old age”)).

People often become hard of hearing in old age.

It’s old age.

The latter part of life, when one is an older adult; especially, the years from age 65 onward.


one day

One day I shall upgrade my software, but not just yet.

(set phrase) At some unspecified time in the future.

One day I was playing with a girl from my class.

One day I was out in the barn and he drifted in. I was currying the horse and he set down on the wheelbarrow and begun to ask questions.

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


on time

en-adj

on time (comparative more on time, superlative most on time)

more on time (comparative)
most on time (superlative)
on-time (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-on time.wav

Punctual or according to schedule; at the planned time.


on time

They bought their dining-room furniture on time.

By installments, payments over a period of time.

Smith beat Jones on time.

(chess) By a player's running out of time.


anytime

From Middle English any time, ony tyme, from Old English ǣniġum tīman, equivalent to any + time.

I don’t like beer much. Give me a fine wine anytime.

But despite the President’s offer, it’s unlikely that an influx of Norwegians will begin to settle in the US anytime soon.

2018 January 12, Kara Fox, “Norwegians aren’t likely to move to the US, even if they’re welcome”, in CNN:


lately

en-adv

lately (comparative latelier or more lately, superlative lateliest or most lately)

latelier (comparative)
more lately (comparative)
lateliest (superlative)
most lately (superlative)

From Middle English lately, latly, equivalent to late + -ly. Compare Old English lætlīċe (“slowly, tardily”), Middle Low German lātlîk (“careless, slack, sloppy”).

cog

Don't try to come lately and change your answer now after you've heard everyone else's response.

(slang) In a late manner; after-the-fact.


infancy

en-noun

infancy (countable and uncountable, plural infancies)

From Middle English infancie, from Latin īnfantia (“infancy, early childhood; childishness”), equivalent to infant + -cy.

der

The earliest period of childhood (crawling rather than walking).


historically

en-adv

historically (comparative more historically, superlative most historically)

more historically (comparative)
most historically (superlative)

From historical + -ly or historic + -ally.

Historically, this company collected payment before starting work.

According to history: formerly, in the past, traditionally.


prolong

en-verb

prolong (third-person singular simple present prolongs, present participle prolonging, simple past and past participle prolonged)

prolongs (present singular third-person)
prolonging (participle present)
prolonged (participle past)
prolonged (past)

Either a back-formation from prolongation, or from Old French prolonguer or porloignier, from Latin prōlongō, from prō + longō. Doublet of purloin.

Complaining prolongs one’s pain.

The departure was not unduly prolonged. In the road Mr. Love and the driver favoured the company with a brief chanty running. “Got it?—No, I ain't, 'old on,—Got it? Got it?—No, 'old on sir.”

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

(transitive) To lengthen in time; to extend the duration of

أَطَالَ

to lengthen in time; to extend the duration of; to draw out; to continue

The government shouldn't prolong deciding on this issue any further.

(transitive) To put off to a distant time; to postpone.

отлагам

to lengthen; to put off to a distant time; to postpone


timeline

timelines (plural)
time line (alternative)
time-line (alternative)

on an alternate timeline

SISKO: I don't quite know how to say this... but now that we know about the accident that sent the ship back in time, we should be able to avoid it.
WORF: Well if we do that, your timeline will collapse and everything here will cease to exist.

1997 May 5, Children of Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), season 5, number 22 (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

So in that sense, if we want to talk about the timeline of what it would mean for Trump to be winning and reshifting the Constitutional order, part of what I think about is: If the neoliberal order is cracked, as Gerstle says it is, then the question is: What will succeed it?

2025 May 16, Ezra Klein, “Is Trump Losing? A Debate.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(originally science fiction) An individual universe or reality, especially a parallel/alternate one in which events differ from actual history, or differ from the established canon of a fictional world.


Bronze Age

the Bronze Age (canonical)
bronze age (alternative)

(archaeology) A period in a civilization's development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze.

(mythology) One of the classical Ages of Man, associated with warfare.


henceforth

From Middle English hennes forth, hens-forþ, hennes-forþ, from modification of Old English heonan forþ with an adverbial genitive suffix. By surface analysis, hence (“from here”) + forth (“forward”).

surf

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

I will try to do a better job, henceforth, now that I know the proper technique!

My thanes and kinsmen,/Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland /In such an honour named

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 ii]:

Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth...Vader.

2005, George Lucas, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith:

(formal, temporal) From now on; from this time on.


repeatedly

en-adv

repeatedly (comparative more repeatedly, superlative most repeatedly)

more repeatedly (comparative)
most repeatedly (superlative)

He repeatedly violated the court order, and shall now be punished.

Scotland had the territory and the momentum, forcing England into almost twice as many tackles and rattling them repeatedly at set-pieces.

2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:

Since 2017, the DfT has "repeatedly altered the scope of the TRU [TransPennine Route Upgrade] to meet differing ministerial priorities and budget constraints", says the NAO [National Audit Office].

2022 August 10, Mel Holley, “Network News: Question marks over TransPennine upgrade spending”, in RAIL, number 963, page 24:


ice age

The cause of ice ages, Köppen decided, is to be found in cool summers, not brutal winters.

2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 377:

(colloquial) Any of several glacial periods (within a scientific ice age) marked by episodes of extensive glaciation alternating with episodes of relative warmth (interglacial).


vespers

From Middle English vespers, from Old French vespres (French vêpres), from Ecclesiastical Latin vesperae (“vespers”), substantivisation of relational Late Latin vesperus (“evening”), from vesper (“evening”) + -us.
Euphemistic use first as Vèpres éphésiennes (“Ephesian Vespers”), coined in 1890 by historian Théodore Reinach by analogy with the Sicilian Vespers.

der

(Christianity, plural only) The sixth of the seven canonical hours, an evening prayer service


ongoing

From on + going, related to the phrasal verb go on.

Presently or currently happening; being in progress.

в процес на

presently or currently happening; being in progress


eleventh hour

en-noun

eleventh hour (countable and uncountable, plural eleventh hours)

eleventh hours (plural)
eleventh-hour (alternative)
11th hour (alternative)

From a parable in the Bible of workmen hired at the eleventh hour (that is, late in the day), known as the Parable of the Workers of the Eleventh Hour or the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard:
* King James Bible, Matthew 20:6 & 20:9:
*: And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? … And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.

If she repented, though at the eleventh hour, it was not too late.

1857, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 85, in The Virginians:

Highly providential was the appearance on the scene of Corny Kelleher when Stephen was blissfully unconscious but for that man in the gap turning up at the eleventh hour the finish might have been that he might have been a candidate for the accident ward […]

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

I have extricated myself so far at many eleventh hours and perhaps there is some hope in this.

1961, Philip Toynbee, Underdogs: Eighteen Victims of Society, page 56:

Egypt had managed to bring the two sides to the brink of a deal two weeks ago, before internal political dynamics prompted the Israelis to back out at the eleventh hour.

2009 March 3, Tony Karon, “Why Money Alone Will Not Fix Gaza”, in Time:

Thus, the famous title of the dictionary is, at base, derogatory. This explains why Yule kept the title secret until the eleventh hour, why some contemporary reviewers took exception to the title, and why Yule highlighted Burnell’s approval of the title.

2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look At `Hobson-Jobson'”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27, number 1, page 59:

(idiomatic) A point in time which is nearly too late; the last minute.

הַדַּקָה הַתִּשְׁעִים f (haddaqá hattish'ím, literally “the 90th minute”)


periodic

/ˌpɪɹiˈɒdɪk/

/ˌpɪɹiˈɑdɪk/

From French périodique, from Medieval Latin periodicus (“cyclical”), from Latin periodus (“complete sentence, period, circuit”), from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “cycle, period of time”). By surface analysis, period + -ic.

der

(mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) For which any return to it must occur in multiples of k time steps, for some k>1.


sith

From Middle English sith (“journey, movement, lifetime, period, occasion”), from Old English sīþ (“journey, movement, trip, point in time, occasion”), from Proto-West Germanic *sinþ, from Proto-Germanic *sinþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to go, head”). Cognate with Faroese sinn (“time”), Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌸𐍃 (sinþs, “path, movement”), Icelandic sinn (“time”). See also send.

der

Of them the other philosophers have, by siths, taken their beginning.

a. 1450, Secretum Secretorum in Ashmole:

The foolish man thereat woxe wondrous blith, / As if the word so spoken, were halfe donne, / And humbly thanked him a thousand sith, / That had from death to life him newly wonne.

1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book 3, canto X, stanza 33:

His land mortgag'd, he, sea-beat in the way, / Wishes for home a thousand siths a day.

1598, Joseph Hall, Quid placet ergo?, line 79:

(obsolete) An instant in time, a point in time or an occasion.


diachronic

en-adj

diachronic (comparative more diachronic, superlative most diachronic)

more diachronic (comparative)
most diachronic (superlative)

By surface analysis, dia- + chron- + -ic; historically, see synchronous § Etymology.

surf

[…] one salient value of archival magazine preservation is that individual issues register, however unintentionally, the small, incremental, diachronic movements within a culture.


unceasing

en-adj

unceasing (comparative more unceasing, superlative most unceasing)

more unceasing (comparative)
most unceasing (superlative)

The unceasing fatigue of my daily walks to and from Clapham, with my various trudgings from one Doctor Humbug to another Doctor Whimsical, combined with the before-mentioned causes to affect my health.

1841, William Johnstoun N. Neale, The naval surgeon, page 136:

To handle the unceasing traffic increase, immense sums of money are being expended in dealing with bottlenecks.

1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: Switzerland: Federal Railways' progress”, in Modern Railways, page 416:

continuous; continuing indefinitely without stopping


gloaming

From a dialectal variant of glooming, from Middle English *gloming, from Old English glōmung, from Old English glōm (“twilight”). By surface analysis, gloom + -ing. Related to glow.
The OED notes: "The vowel of the modern gloaming is anomalous, as Old English glōmung should normally become glooming. The explanation is probably that the ō was shortened in the compound ǣfen-glommung (as the spelling seems to show was actually the case), and that from this compound there was evolved a new subject glŏmung, which by normal phonetic development became Middle English glǭming, modern English gloaming."

Where in purple hue, the hieland hills we view / And the moon coming out in the gloaming.

c. 1841, anonymous author, “The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond”, in Vocal Melodies of Scotland, verse 2:

You may imagine the young people brushed up after the labours of the day, and making this novelty, as they would make any novelty, the excuse for walking together and enjoying a trivial flirtation. You may figure to yourself the hum of voices along the road in the gloaming[…]

1898, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 6, in The War of the Worlds, book 1:

I clung to her nipples as she soared and swooped through the gloaming, scooping up insects, and I remember the shapes of things that she flew between, above, beneath.

Your alarm bells, your alarm / They should be ringing, they should be ringing / This is the gloaming

2003, “The Gloaming”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead:

Twilight, as at early morning (dawn) or (especially) early evening; dusk.


dawdle

en-verb

dawdle (third-person singular simple present dawdles, present participle dawdling, simple past and past participle dawdled)

dawdles (present singular third-person)
dawdling (participle present)
dawdled (participle past)
dawdled (past)
dawdle (infinitive)
dawdle (first-person present singular)
dawdled (first-person past singular)
dawdle (present second-person singular)
dawdlest (archaic present second-person singular)
dawdled (past second-person singular)
dawdledst (archaic past second-person singular)
dawdles (present singular third-person)
dawdleth (archaic present singular third-person)
dawdled (past singular third-person)
dawdle (plural present)
dawdled (past plural)
dawdle (present subjunctive)
dawdled (past subjunctive)
dawdle (imperative present)
dawdling (participle present)
dawdled (participle past)
daudle (alternative)

The verb is possibly:
* a variant of daddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk or work slowly, dawdle, saunter, trifle”) or doddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk feebly or slowly, dawdle, idle, saunter, stroll”), possibly influenced by daw (“(Britain, dialectal) lazy, good-for-nothing person, sluggard”); or
* borrowed from Middle Low German dȫdelen (“to dawdle”), related to Saterland Frisian döädelje (“to dawdle”); compare also German daddeln (“to play”), German verdaddeln (“to waste (time), neglect, ruin”). All of these words are assumed to be of imitative origin.
The noun is derived from the verb.

onomatopoeic

imitative

to dawdle away the whole morning

[M]anaging to live on terms with both / Opposing potentates, the Power and you, / Crowned with success, but dawdle out my days / In exile here at Clairvaux, with mock love, […]

1873 January 23, Robert Browning, “Part IV”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 230–231:

(transitive) Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.

torbar

Tell him, if he'll call on me, and davvdle over a diſh of tea in an afternoon, I ſhall take it kind.

1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “[1781]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 405:

Mr. Collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his successful love; for Mrs. Bennett, having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference, no sooner saw Elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass he towards the staircase, than she entered the breakfast-room, and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XX, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 255:

You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle. There's no doubt of conscience about that, I suppose?

1866, John Ruskin, “Crystal Virtues”, in The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 90:

There are no idlers here; the only loungers are those who have undertaken for hire to do other people's business, and the hireling dawdleth because he is an hireling. What is his master's business to him? he neither knows its importance nor yet cares he if it be neglected.

1888, [Julia Clara Byrne], chapter X, in De Omnibus Rebus: An Old Man’s Discursive Ramblings on the Road of Everyday Life […], John C. Nimmo […], →OCLC, pages 263–264:

White creature wholly white, thou winter-coloured imp, tongue-shaped and slippery, 'wall-streak' and 'rubbish of the floor,' that livest 'neath timbers of a house, that dawdlest underneath the nook, […]

1898, John Abercromby, “Charms of the East Finns, Russians, Letts, etc.”, in The Pre- and Proto-historic Finns: Both Eastern and Western with the Magic Songs of the West Finns, volume II, London: David Nutt […], →OCLC, § 86 (Against the Cow-house Snake), subsection b, page 172:

However all [Wayne] Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.

2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 – 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2023-02-03:

To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.

счита́ть га́лок impf (sčitátʹ gálok, literally “count the jackdaws”)


dawdle

imitative

An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.


all-nighter

all-nighters (plural)
allnighter (alternative)
all nighter (alternative)

From all-night + -er = all- + night + -er.

That party was an all-nighter.

Something that lasts throughout the whole night.

(specifically) An instance of studying or working throughout the night without sleep.

(UK, crime, slang) A client of a prostitute who has paid for the entire night.


around the clock

They worked around the clock to finish the project on time.

(duration, idiomatic) All the time, or seemingly all the time; constantly.


instantly

enstantly (alternative)
instantlie (alternative)
instauntly (alternative)

As if he mastred there a double spirit
Of teaching, and of learning instantly

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:


momentarily

The system will restart momentarily.

He told me, further, that the second coming was at hand--was looked for momentarily in Jerusalem.

1880, Lew Wallace, chapter 3, in Ben-Hur, a Tale of the Christ:

(US, proscribed, duration) In a moment or very soon; any minute now, any time now.


dead week

Possibly from the propensity during this period for students to cram for final exams and complete term papers, often resulting in sleep deprivation, increased irritability, and stress. Also possibly from the lack of classes or activities scheduled during this period, in order to allow more study time.

In a college or university, the week immediately preceding finals week.


deadline

→ Danish: deadline

→ Dutch: deadline

→ Finnish: deadline

→ German: Deadline

→ Italian: deadline

→ Polish: deadline

→ Swedish: deadline

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, early usage refers to lines that do not move, such as one used in angling. Slightly later American usage refers to a boundary in a prison which prisoners must not cross. There is only indirect evidence that the sense of "due date" may be connected with this use of the term in prison camps during the American Civil War, when it referred to a physical line or boundary beyond which prisoners were shot. In 1904, in a report from the US Department of Commerce and Labor, the term is used for "minimum work goals" (and in contrast to bonus line): for example, as a typographer the line could be 18,000 ems per day; should one not cross this line, then that could have negative consequences. In 1917, the term is attested as a printing term for a guideline on the bed of a printing press beyond which text will not print. Three years later, the term is found in print in the sense of "time limit" in the closely connected publishing industry, indicating the time after which material would not make it into a newspaper or periodical.

I must make this deadline or my boss will kill me!

TfW's [Transport for Wales] plans to meet the PRM [Persons with Reduced Mobility] deadline and withdraw all Pacers by 1 January have been made more difficult by delays to introduction of Class 769 and 230 units.

2019 October, Rhodri Clark, “TfW seeks PRM derogation for Class 37 sets”, in Modern Railways, page 87:

A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed.

截止日期

jiézhǐ rìqī (mainland China) or jiézhǐ rìqí (Taiwan)

限期

xiànqī (mainland China) or xiànqí (Taiwan)


age-old

They still make pottery by hand, in the age-old tradition.

It is a striking fact that it seems to be an age-old tradition amongst locomotive designers that a 0-6-0 tender engine must have inside cylinders.

1945 November and December, H. C. Casserley, “Random Reflections on British Locomotive Types—1”, in Railway Magazine, pages 319–320:

And on a programme of works of this magnitude, passengers will need to be mindful of the age-old maxim of 'no gain without pain'.

2020 September 23, Paul Stephen, “East Coast upgrade: changes to schedule... but on schedule”, in Rail, page 31:

Very old; having existed for a long time; ancient or well-established.


contemporaneously

From contemporaneous + -ly, from Latin contemporāneus, from co- (“together”) + tempus (“time”).


contemporaneous

From Latin contemporāneus (“contemporary”), from con- (“with”) + tempus (“time”) + -aneus (“of or pertaining to”) (compare Late Latin temporāneus (“opportune, timely”)).

cog

Look in other contemporaneous works to see whether that idea was common then.

Let AE and ae be two Lines indefinitely extended each way, along which two moving Things or Points may paſs from afar, and at the ſame time may reach the places A and a, B and b, C and c, D and d, &c. and let B be the Point, by its diſtance from which, the Motion of the moving thing or point in AE is eſtimated; so that — BA, BC, BD, BE, ſucceſſively, may be the flowing Quantities, when the moving thing is in the places A, C, D, E. Likewiſe let b be a like point in the other Line. Then will — BA and — ba be contemporaneous Fluents, as alſo BC and bc, BD and bd, BE and be, &c. […] [T]he contemporaneous parts AB and ab, BC and bc, CD and cd, DE and de are of the ſame length in both caſes. And thus in Equations in which theſe Quantities are repreſented, the contemporaneous parts of Quantities are not therefore changed, notwithſtanding their abſolute magnitude may be increaſed or diminiſhed by ſome given Quantity.

1736, Isaac Newton, “Prob[lem] II. An Equation being Proposed, Including the Fluxions of Quantities, to Find the Relations of those Quantities to One Another.”, in John Colson, transl., The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series; with Its Application to the Geometry of Curve-lines. [...] Translated from the Author’s Latin Original Not Yet Made Publick. To which is Subjoin’d, a Perpetual Comment upon the Whole Work, Consisting of Annotations, Illustrations, and Supplements, in Order to Make this Treatise a Compleat Institution for the Use of Learners, London: Printed by Henry Woodfall; and sold by John Nourse, at the Lamb without Temple-Bar, →OCLC, page 43:

In ancient times, as was formerly remarked, every event that excited any degree of interest, was wrought up in verse by the poets, and transmitted, by the aid of memory, from one generation to another. Other circumstances of a public nature, which gave less scope to the imagination, or could scarcely admit of amplification, were engraven on brass or marble, or stamped upon medals. In these different ways the memory of some ancient occurrences was imperfectly preserved, and afforded the means and materials, when writing came into use, to secure contemporaneous events from perishing for ever, and of making them more generally known.

1818, John Potter, G[eorge] Dunbar, “A Concise General History of the Early Grecian States; with some Observations on the Nature and Policy of the Spartan and Athenian Governments”, in Archaeologia Graeca, or the Antiquities of Greece. By John Potter, D.D. Late Archbishop of Canterbury. A New Edition. To which is Added, an Appendix, Containing a Concise History of the Grecian States, and a Short Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Celebrated Greek Authors. By G. Dunbar, F.R.S.E. and Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh. In Two Volumes, new edition, volume II, Edinburgh: Printed for Stirling & Slade; [et al.], →OCLC, part II (On the Literature of the Greeks), pages 96–97:

You know that Meroïtic is an ancient Nubian writing system of the third, or fourth century B.C., and is a script which conceals a typically African language. […] [I]f this script is deciphered, we will have in that respect the testimony of an African language which goes back 2,400 years, that is to say [back to a period] fairly contemporaneous with Latin and other languages of antiquity.

1973 May, Harun Kofi Wangara, quoting Cheikh Anta Diop, “African Perspective on History”, in John H[arold] Johnson, editor, Black World, volume XXIII, number 4, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, published February 1974, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 58–59:

Preceded by a Simpsons short shot in 3-D—perhaps the only thing more superfluous than a fourth Ice Age movie—Ice Age: Continental Drift finds a retinue of vaguely contemporaneous animals coping with life in the post-Pangaea age.

2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2014-03-25:

In contrast, Holmes has also tried to adopt a firmly contemporaneous view, to ensure the GCR is fit to face current and emerging challenges.

2023 August 23, Malcolm Holmes tells Paul Stephen, “A mission to develop GCR's legacy”, in RAIL, number 990, page 39:

Existing or created in the same period of time.

مُتَعَاصِر

existing or created in the same period of time


transitory

en-adj

transitory (comparative more transitory, superlative most transitory)

more transitory (comparative)
most transitory (superlative)

From Middle French transitoire, from Old French, from Latin transitorius.

Secondly, That the Materials being very tranſitory, have ſuffered much from Inclemencies of Air, eſpecially in theſe North-Weſt Regions.

1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section I. The Introduction.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 34:

Quite unconscious of the demonstrations of their amorous neighbour, or their effects upon the susceptible bosom of her mama, Kate Nickleby had, by this time begun to enjoy a settled feeling of tranquillity and happiness, to which, even in occasional and transitory glimpses, she had long been a stranger.

1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Comprises certain Particulars arising out of a Visit of Condolence, which may prove important hereafter. Smike unexpectedly encounters a very old Friend, who invites him to his house, and will take no denial.”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 366:

For a moment she paused by the taxi-stand and watched them—wondering that but a few years before she had been of their number, ever setting out for a radiant Somewhere, always just about to have that ultimate passionate adventure for which the girls' cloaks were delicate and beautifully furred, for which their cheeks were painted and their hearts higher than the transitory dome of pleasure that would engulf them, coiffure, cloak, and all.

1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “A Matter of Æsthetics”, in The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 3, page 359:

անցողական

lasting only a short time — see also transient


geologic time scale

en-noun

geologic time scale (plural geologic time scales)

geologic time scales (plural)
geological timescale (alternative)
geologic timescale (alternative)

If maths and physics are the nearest we have to a universal language to communicate with visiting extra-terrestrials, handing them a geologic time scale would be about as useful as a Jackson Pollock painting. It looks hella scientific […] but essentially it’s a very fancy way of telling the story about the history of the Earth.

2018 May 2, Mark Carnall, “What is geologic time, and how does it work?”, in The Guardian:

A chronological scale of the earth's history used to measure the relative or absolute age of any part of geologic time.


every so often

Check on the houseplants every so often to see if they need watering.

Occasionally; intermittently; irregularly; now and then; once in a while.


preprandial

praeprandial (alternative)
præprandial (alternative)
pre-prandial (alternative)

Whilst meditating on the beauty and design as shown in the ant-eater, whose præprandial movements I was intently watching, a young gentleman (not a naturalist) asked me, sotto voce, "what is that contrivance?" "It is a contrivance," said I, "for catching ants, and that is why he is called the ant-eater," I continued to a young lady, who wanted to know the meaning of his name.

1854, “The Ant-eater”, in Bentley's Miscellany, volume XXXV, London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, page 550:

Gauss laid aside his pipe, pulled his velvet cap over the back of his head, returned the Russian dictionary and the little volume of Pushkin to the shelf, and prepared to go for his preprandial walk.

2006, Daniel Kehlmann; Carol Brown Janeway, transl., Measuring the World, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books; republished London: Quercus, 2007, page 251

Patients who demonstrate significant insulin resistance at diagnosis and require insulin therapy may alternate preprandial and postprandial evaluations to enable more rapid optimization of control by using an additional supplemental insulin sliding scale as needed to cover preprandial hyperglycaemia (>100 ml per dl)[…].

2007, Margarita de Veciana, Arthur T. Evans, “Endocrine Disorders: Diabetes”, in Arthur T. Evans, editor, Manual of Obstetrics, 7th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, page 285:

Social drinkers (as they are sometimes called) may have excellent control over the amount they drink and still look forward to a preprandial aperitif (and miss it when they do not get one).

2008, Ann M. Manzardo, Donald W. Goodwin, Jan L. Campbell, Elizabeth C. Penick, William F. Gabrielli, Jr., “The Symptoms”, in Alcoholism (The Facts), 4th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 47:

The standardized analysis of metabolic parameters in the preprandial and postprandial state may provide important functional clues for the diagnosis of metabolic disorders.

2010, Johannes Zschocke, “Function Tests”, in Georg F. Hoffmann, Johannes Zschocke, William L[eo] Nyhan, editors, Inherited Metabolic Diseases: A Clinical Approach, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 347, column 1:

The slight increase in pre-prandial and post-prandial bile acids are suggestive of hepatic dysfunction, but other causes of slight elevations, such as pancreatic or gastrointestinal disease, cannot be ruled out.

2015, “Answers”, in Kathleen P. Freeman, Stefanie Klenner, editors, Veterinary Clinical Pathology: A Case-based Approach, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 132:

Occurring before a meal, especially dinner.


synchronize

en-verb

synchronize (third-person singular simple present synchronizes, present participle synchronizing, simple past and past participle synchronized)

tlb

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

synchronizes (present singular third-person)
synchronizing (participle present)
synchronized (participle past)
synchronized (past)
synchronise (alternative)

From Ancient Greek συγχρονίζω (sunkhronízō), equivalent to syn- + chrono- + -ize.

زَامَنَ

cause two events to have coordinated timing

The path of this great empire, through its arch of progress, synchronized with that of Christianity.

1839, Thomas De Quincey, Philosophy of Roman History:

(transitive) To cause two or more events or actions to happen at exactly the same time or same rate, or in a time-coordinated way.

(intransitive) To occur at the same time or with coordinated timing.


life expectancy

en-noun

life expectancy (countable and uncountable, plural life expectancies)

(of a person) The amount of time one is expected to live.

مَأْمُول اَلْحَيَاة

the amount of time one is expected to live

(figuratively, by extension, of an idea or an object) The amount of time something is expected to last.

預期壽命 /预期寿命

the amount of time something is expected to last


postmodern

en-adj

postmodern (comparative more postmodern, superlative most postmodern)

more postmodern (comparative)
most postmodern (superlative)
pomo (alternative)
post-modern (alternative)

The nearer is a fact to the temporary limits of knowledge, the more implicated becomes this regression and the more blurred ought to be statement of fact. [Percy W.] Bridgman of Harvard recently has emphasized this conclusion, but his postmodern position has as yet made small impression.

1937 May, John Q. Stewart, “An Astronomer Looks at the Modern Epoch”, in The Scientific Monthly, volume 44, number 5, page 402:

A new book by Peter Drucker, author of “The New Society” and “America's Next Twenty Years,” will be published next Wednesday by Harper. In “Landmarks of Tomorrow,” Mr. Drucker discusses the postmodern world and how it differs from the old “modern” world that began with Descartes and the empiricists.

1958 December 31, “Books–Authors”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(literally) Relating to what follows the modern era.


modernity

en-noun

modernity (countable and uncountable, plural modernities)

Borrowed from Latin modernitās or modern + -ity.

The organization survived from ancient times to modernity.


now and then

Compare Dutch nu en dan, West Frisian no en dan.

Call your mother now and then and let her know you care.

I'm a writer first, but I do have my HGV licence, and I use it every now and then.

2024 March 6, Pip Dunn, “Freight's future is in ISO containers”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 36:

(idiomatic) Synonym of occasionally, sometimes, intermittently.

af en toe

(idiomatic) sometimes; occasionally; intermittently


time dilation

time dilation (countable and uncountable, plural time dilations)

time dilations (plural)
time dilatation (alternative rare)

(relativity) The slowing of the passage of time experienced by objects in motion relative to an observer (measurable only at relativistic speeds), or due to being in a gravitational well.

dilatació del temps

slowing of the passage of time at relativistic speeds


Renaissance

/ˈɹɛnəˌsɑns/

/ˌɹɛnəˈsɑns/

/ɹəˈnæɪsɔns/

/ɹəˈnæɪsəns/

/ɹɘˈnæɪsɒns/

/ɹɘˈnæɪsɘns/

The period of this revival, typically lasting from the late 14th to the late 16th centuries; the transition from medieval to modern times.


Vespers

(Christianity) A Christian service held in the late afternoon or early evening; evensong


CDT

Central Daylight Time
w:Central Daylight Time


CST

For example, triskaidekaphobes like to point out the fate of the 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission, blaming its near-disastrous outcome on its number and the time it launched, 13:13 CST.

2017 October 12, Albert Garcia, “What is the word for fear of the number 13? Triskaidekaphobia”, in Calliope Magazine, page 3:

Central Standard Time
Central Standard Time#English

China Standard Time
China Standard Time#English


EST

Eastern Standard Time
Eastern Standard Time#English

(time) Initialism of Eastern Standard Time.


zeitgeist

zeitgeist (plural zeitgeists or zeitgeister or (rare) zeitgeisten)

zeitgeists (plural)
zeitgeister (plural)
zeitgeisten (plural rare)
Zeitgeist (alternative)

Unadapted borrowing from German Zeitgeist (literally “spirit of the age”).

ubor

She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn. She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny. She had been tracked down by the Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time.

1958, Martin Luther King Jr., “Rosa Parks' Arrest”, in Stride Toward Freedom:

After quickly summarizing the zeitgeisten of the Greek, Elizabethan, and early modern periods and their effects on the theatre, Rice turns to the contemporary world.

1996, Michael Vanden Heuvel, Elmer Rice: A Research and Production Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN:

[Robert] Heinlein’s gift was to catch the zeitgeist. “That’s what made him so successful, but it makes his work seem dated.”

2007 December 9, Scott Timberg, quoting Annalee Newitz, “The descent of a sci-fi guru”, in Los Angeles Times:

The vote also stoked fears that Swiss citizens were reflecting the zeitgeist across Europe, where right-wing populists increasingly are seizing the spotlight with an anti-immigration political agenda.

2014 February 10, Anthony Faiola, “Swiss vote to limit foreign workers captures growing European fears about immigration”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 2014-02-11:

The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.


lustre

From Middle English lustre, from Latin lustrum, from Old Latin *loustrom, of uncertain origin. More at lustrum.

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

(British spelling) Alternative form of luster: A 5-year period, especially (historical) in Roman contexts.


the other day

day before yesterday
day before yesterday


doomsday

en-noun

doomsday (countable and uncountable, plural doomsdays)

doomsdays (plural)
domesday (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English domes + dai, from Old English dom (“judgment”) + dæg (“day”). Equivalent to doom + -s- + day. Possibly influenced by Latin domus dei (“house of God”).

The day when God is expected to judge the world; the end times.


DST

daylight saving time
daylight saving time#English


just in time

I very nearly drove into the car in front, but thankfully I managed to stop just in time.

At the last possible moment; just before or within the assigned time.


PDT

Pacific Daylight Time
Pacific Daylight Time#English


PST

“Oakland Airport Connector service is running limited service due to a power outage. Shuttles will depart every 18 minutes,” BART said in a 2:38 p.m. PST update.

2023 February 19, Michelle Watson, “Bay Area Rapid Transit running limited service to Oakland Airport due to power outage”, in CNN:

Pacific Standard Time
Pacific Standard Time#English

Philippine Standard Time
Philippine Standard Time#English

Palestinian Standard Time
Palestinian Standard Time#English

Initialism of Palestinian Standard Time.


indefinitely

It was a dark, horsehairy place with a sort of abandon-hope atmosphere that seemed suitable for people that had no money, and who were going indefinitely into pawn.

1905, Lloyd Osbourne, Baby Bullet: the motor of destiny, page 171:

One argument is that "the virus has changed everything" and that people will work from home and travel much less, easing capacity pressures.
But there is a counter argument whereby we may all discover that, longer-term, many jobs cannot after all be effectively carried out from home indefinitely.

2020 May 20, David Thrower, Ian Wray, “Revisiting the plan for developing the North's rail network”, in Rail, page 40:


retroactive

/ˌɹɛt.ɹəʊˈæk.tɪv/

First attested in 1610. From French rétroactif, equivalent to retro- + active.

Rather, he hoped there was some legal trickeration he could deploy to get a retroactive water right filed and end-run the opposition.

2005, Jeff Hull, Pale Morning Done: A Novel, page 214:

Can such a child be ennobled by the passage of time, his struggles granted retroactive gravitas and his childish confusions rearticulated with adult clarity?

2007 April 15, Liesl Schillinger, “The Night Train to Bucharest”, in The New York Times:

Such assumptions can motivate expressions of cisgenderism such as retroactive misgendering (in which a person's past is described using language that disregards or contrasts with their current designation of their gender) […]

2016, Abbie E. Goldberg, The SAGE Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies, page 232:

Extending in scope, effect, application or influence to a prior time or to prior conditions

հետադարձ

extending in scope, effect, application or influence to a prior time or to prior conditions


senescence

senescence (usually uncountable, plural senescences)

(gerontology) Old age; accumulated damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs with the passage of time.


stand the test of time

en-verb

stand the test of time (third-person singular simple present stands the test of time, present participle standing the test of time, simple past and past participle stood the test of time)

stands the test of time (present singular third-person)
standing the test of time (participle present)
stood the test of time (participle past)
stood the test of time (past)

Pop music comes and goes, but classical music has stood the test of time.

The urban myth of the sun shining through Box Tunnel on Brunel's birthday may have been knocked on the head, but in its portal facing designs he created structures which have stood the test of time well.

2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 46:

(idiomatic) To remain useful or valued over a long period of time; to last a long time.


month of Sundays

en-noun

month of Sundays (plural months of Sundays)

Probably a reference to the passing of as many Sundays as there are days in a month, that is, between 28 and 31 weeks.

It seems like it’s been a month of Sundays since we saw him last.

[T]he captain had ordered his back to be anointed with ſome pickle, by way of preſerving ſome mortification, which increaſed his agony ſo intolerably, that he exhibited the various contorſions and wreathings of a rattle ſnake with ſurprizing velocity, to the no ſmall edification of the commander, who ſwore he ſhould dance to the ſecond part of the ſame tune, for a month of Sundays; ſtill repeating the word citation, which he could neither underſtand, nor digeſt.

1759, Hamilton Murray [pseudonym], chapter X, in The Life and Real Adventures of Hamilton Murray. […], London: […] J. Burd, […], →OCLC, pages 120–121:

Let the Sunday papers have their day: it is all they have; though it would require a month of Sundays to read all they publish upon it.

1808, [George Colman the Younger], Presume Not beyond Measure: A Serio-comic Letter of Advice, Addressed to the Editors of All the Public Papers. […], London: […] J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, page 14:

Why, what an orator you are! Really, I haven't heard more fluent or passionate English this month of Sundays.

1850, [Charles Kingsley], “The Plush Breeches Tragedy”, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 71:

From many quarters in London even a park is far distant, while we have months of Sundays which are wet and cold, when the dens where many people live would be preferred because affording shelter from the weather.

1883, Hodgson Pratt, “On the Same [Art in Large Towns. In what Way Can the Influence of Art be Best Brought to Bear on the Masses of the Population in Large Towns?]”, in Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, section V (Art), page 595:

The most vivacious, sparkling, entertaining piece of comedy you are likely to come across in a month of Sundays.

1915 December, “Hodder and Stoughton’s Christmas List of Novels [advertisement]”, in The Bookman, volume XLIX, number 291, London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton […], →OCLC, page xv, column 4:

Just what do you hope to gain by badgering my people down here? They're not going to spill their guts to you in a month of Sundays.

1973, Matt Braun, chapter 3, in El Paso, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, published July 1999, →ISBN, page 203:

["]But if I told you the rest of the truth, you wouldn't believe me anyway." / "Try me." / "Guarantee it, you won't," the man teases. "Not in a month of Sundays."

2001, David Michael Smith, “Balsam Fir”, in Stories from the Manger, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 31:

As I listened to the tapes over months of Sundays, it became clear that I would not work with [John] Lilly. I was more interested in the dolphins speaking to dolphins than in the attempts to teach them our language.

2002 May, Alexandra Morton, chapter 3, in Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published June 2004, →ISBN, page 28:

Over the years, she'd visited the McIntoshes and also her daughters in Sydney but she had never, in a month of Sundays, dreamed she would live there herself.

2014, Lois Shepheard, “The Controversial Marriage”, in Black McIntosh to Gold, Carindale, Qld.: Glass House Books, →ISBN, page 187:

I [Tennessee Williams] told her [Eva Le Gallienne] I had, indeed, read the plays of Mr. [Henrik] Ibsen, had seen them in numerous productions, and found them to be quite like the act of eating a box of soap flakes, when they were not like two months of Sundays in church.

2015, James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 50:

(idiomatic, informal) A very long time; a period regarded as too long.


agelong

en-adj

agelong (comparative more agelong, superlative most agelong)

more agelong (comparative)
most agelong (superlative)
age-long (alternative)

Latter day witches, continuing the age-long cult, frequently made use of these old circles as meeting places, holding esbats, sabbats, and performing their ritual "ring" dances within the circumference of the tall granite stones.

1965, Ruth E. St. Leger-Gordon, Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor, page xviii. 146:


continually

en-adv

continually (comparative more continually, superlative most continually)

more continually (comparative)
most continually (superlative)

Guatemalan snowpea production has continually been harmed by insect and disease infestations.

2007, George W. Norton, E. A. Heinrichs, Gregory C. Luther, Globalizing Integrated Pest Management: A Participatory Research Process, page 87:

In regular or repeated succession; very often.


matins

From Middle English matyns, matynes, from Old French matines.

This chant was sung in many cathedrals both at First Vespers and at Matins for Christmas Day. In Notre Dame and many other churches, however, it was only performed at First Vespers.

2017, Edward H. Roesner, editor, Ars antiqua: Organum, Conductus, Motet, Routledge, →ISBN, page 43:

Together with lauds, the earliest of the canonical hours; traditionally prayed at sunrise or earlier.


millennium bug

Mr Johnson also said the Northern Irish border row had been blown out of proportion and compared fears over disruption over vital goods coming into the UK to "pure millennium bug stuff".

2018 June 7, Lizzy Buchan, “Boris Johnson says Trump could handle Brexit better and warns of ’meltdown’ in explosive leaked recording”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-07:

(computing) A design flaw in computer systems that represented years as two digits (e.g. 84 for 1984), which could cause date calculations to fail if they involved years later than 1999.

千年蟲 /千年虫

a design flaw in computer systems which which could cause date calculations to fail after 1999


periodically

The announcement comes amid mounting pressure on university administrators to rein in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which have erupted periodically on college campuses across the country over the past year and led to the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators.

2025 March 10, Karina Tsui and Elizabeth Wolfe, “Department of Education investigating 60 colleges and universities over antisemitism claims”, in CNN:


solar time

en-noun

solar time (countable and uncountable, plural solar times)

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(astronomy, time) A calculation of the passage of time based on the apparent position of the Sun in the sky.


solar day

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(astronomy) One day of solar time; the time in which a planet such as Earth apparently rotates once around its axis relative to the Sun; the time taken for the Sun to seem to be in the same place in the sky twice (on Earth about 24 hours as an average - the length of solar day is not constant throughout the year)

আফতাবী রোজ

time for a planet to rotate once relative to the sun


timekeeping

timekeeping (usually uncountable, plural timekeepings)

timekeepings (plural)
time-keeping (alternative)

The measurement of time, or determining what the local time is: the act or process of keeping the time.

Measuring and recording the time spent by employees on the clock, including the timepoints at which they clocked in and clocked out.

Timekeeping is better than on many Irish main lines; indeed, such delays as do occur are often attributable to late running of the Dublin-Sligo trains.

1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 343:

As already indicated, timekeeping is very poor. Point-to-point times are not kept, even with a clear road, and whilst fast running has never been a feature of the route because of the large number of junctions and speed restrictions, this Sunday night lethargy is hard to explain.

1959 March, D. Bertram, “An old friend - the 9.7”, in Trains Illustrated, page 141:

Our correspondent found that timekeeping had suffered following the substitution of Class 5 4-6-0s on these workings.

1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 638:

The quality of being punctual, keeping to a set time.


timekeeper

timekeepers (plural)
time-keeper (alternative)

The sailors sail by chronometers that do not lose two or three seconds in a year, ever since [Isaac] Newton explained to Parliament that the way to improve navigation was to get good watches, and to offer public premiums for a better time-keeper than any then in use.

1878 March 30, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic. Lecture Delivered at the Old South Church, March 30, 1878, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Osgood and Company […], published 1878, →OCLC, page 1:

A device that shows the time; a timepiece.

(sports) A person who records the time elapsed in a sporting event.

хронометрист

a person who records the time elapsed in a sporting event


meantime

meantime (countable and uncountable, plural meantimes)

meantimes (plural)
mean time (alternative)

From Middle English menetime, equivalent to mean + time. Adverb is by ellipsis from in the meantime.

We'll come back asap; just wait here for the meantime.

The time spent waiting for another event; time in between.


blue moon

blue moon (countable and uncountable, plural blue moons)

(countable, idiomatic, by extension) A long time.


never again

Current use as slogan popularized after the Holocaust, including by Meir Kahane's titular 1972 book and Jewish Defense League's 1968 adoption of the slogan.

Never again becomes more than a slogan: It’s a prayer, a promise, a vow … never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence

2012, Elie Wiesel, 'Never Again': From a Holocaust phrase to a universal phrase:

Yet, as Rose says, "Never again is obsolete. Never again is now.” She points out that there are contemporary genocides and many human rights violations happening at this very second. Rose's words challenge us all to respond to the moral imperative of standing up when confronted by injustice, ...

2014, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Whitney Douglas, Sara W. Fry, The Activist Learner: Inquiry, Literacy, and Service to Make Learning Better, Teachers College Press, →ISBN, page 93:

What could be more cynical than a cash grab wrapped up in “never again?”

2025 January 28, “The Fall of Goma”, in Council on Foreign Relations:

(set phrase) At no time in the future; usually said of a negative event, practice, etc., which should not be allowed to reoccur.


centenary

From Latin centēnārius (“containing 100; local official overseeing a hundred”) either directly or via French centenaire, from centēnī (“100 each”) + -ārius (“-ary”), from centum (“hundred”). Doublet of centner, kantar, and quintal.

der

(obsolete) Synonym of century: a period of 100 years.


luster

lusters (plural)
lustre (alternative)
lustre (alternative)

...thritty yere of vj. lustres...

1387, Ranulph Higden, translated by John de Trevisa, Polychronicon, volume VIII, page 29:

Mesue and some other Arabians began to reject and reprehend it; upon whose authority, for many following lusters, it was much debased and quite out of request […].

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 2, subsection ii:

Alternative form of lustrum: A five-year period, especially (historical) in Roman contexts.


vanishing point

en-noun

vanishing point (plural vanishing points)

At 8h 35' 4", the least dent possible, quite black, appeared in the sun's limb. And at 8h 35' 6", the limb was restored to its perfect form, there having been a small trembling light, between the narrow watery border of Venus and the vanishing point of contact in the sun's limb for these two seconds of time.

1762, Samuel Dunn, “Some Observations of the Planet Venus, on the Disk of the Sun, June 6th, 1761,”, in Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), volume 52, page 192:

It might cut the tuberculosis deathrate to the vanishing point.

1923 June 25, “Tuberculosis at Bay”, in Time:

It hit 100 m.p.h. with ease and sped toward the vanishing point down Highway 93A.

2003 August 25, Sally B. Donnelly, “The Need for Speed”, in Time:

The situation in which, place where, or point in time when some object or phenomenon is no longer observable or notable.

katoamispiste

point when an object or phenomenon is no longer observable


meanwhile

From Middle English menewhile, equivalent to mean (“intermediate”) + while. Adverb is by ellipsis from in the mean while, noun being conventionally written as one word after the adjective.

In the meanwhile, the surveyors carried the line three miles, which was no contemptible day's work, considering how cruelly they were entangled with briers and gallbushes.

Quoted in 2002, Stephen C. Ausband, Byrd's Line: A Natural History (page 37)


prehistoric

en-adj

prehistoric (comparative more prehistoric, superlative most prehistoric)

more prehistoric (comparative)
most prehistoric (superlative)
pre-historic (alternative)

French: préhistorique

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From pre- (“before”) + historic, q.v., similar to slightly earlier ante-historic.

Was it then in a pre-historic time that the Romans wandered into these lands?

1832 October, Foreign Quarterly Review, page 369:

The cartoon image of prehistoric woman being dragged by the hair by her caveman-husband probably conditions the perceptions of archaeologists far more than they realize.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 137:

(properly) Of or relating to the epoch before written record.

parahistorik

of relating to the epoch before written record


perpetually

From Middle English perpetuelly; equivalent to perpetual + -ly.

For whiche offence oure holy fader the pope enioyned hym to make hym to be prayed for perpetually / ⁊ lyke as he had done too be taken frome hym his naturall lyfe therfore he ſholde do foũde four tapers to brẽne perpetually about his body yͭ for yͤ extynccõn of his bodely lyf his ſoule may euer be remẽbred ⁊ lyf in heuẽ in ſpyrytuall lyfe

[1502], Chronycle of Englonde, [London]: [Wynkyn de Worde], →OCLC:

Now her work dropped on her knee, and her book fell from her hand; she was perpetually seeking excuses for change of place; and the change brought added discomfort.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A First Disappointment”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 268–269:

But, like more than one similar North Wales beauty-spot, there had to be (at least at the time of which I write), a quarry, or ironworks, or some kind of industrial plant, which lay perpetually under a cloud of yellowish smoke—literally a blot on the landscape.

1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, pages 18-19:

Seeming to never end; endlessly; constantly.


elapse

en-verb

elapse (third-person singular simple present elapses, present participle elapsing, simple past and past participle elapsed)

elapses (present singular third-person)
elapsing (participle present)
elapsed (participle past)
elapsed (past)

From Middle French elapser, from Latin elapsus.

He allowed a month to elapse before beginning the work.

Several days elapsed before they met again.

The week that was yet to elapse, she spent in wandering through her uncle's favourite walks in hours of tearful vigil, beside his tomb, and in collecting together every trifle on which he had set a value.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Remembrance of the Dead”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 322:

Many years elapsed before the success of Kemp Town as a residential district was assured; the foundations of the estate were laid in 1823, but some houses remained untenanted until the 1850s.

1952 December, R. C. Riley, “By Rail to Kemp Town”, in Railway Magazine, page 832:

(intransitive, of time) To pass or move by.


quarter of an hour

en-noun

quarter of an hour (plural quarters of an hour)

Will you shut up! You've been talking for the last quarter of an hour.

After half or three quarters of an hour’s chat.


postprandial

Patients who demonstrate significant insulin resistance at diagnosis and require insulin therapy may alternate preprandial and postprandial evaluations to enable more rapid optimization of control by using an additional supplemental insulin sliding scale as needed to cover preprandial hyperglycaemia (>100 ml per dl)[…].

2007, Margarita de Veciana, Arthur T. Evans, “Endocrine Disorders: Diabetes”, in Arthur T. Evans, editor, Manual of Obstetrics, 7th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, page 285:

The standardized analysis of metabolic parameters in the preprandial and postprandial state may provide important functional clues for the diagnosis of metabolic disorders.

2010, Johannes Zschocke, “Function Tests”, in Georg F. Hoffmann, Johannes Zschocke, William L[eo] Nyhan, editors, Inherited Metabolic Diseases: A Clinical Approach, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 347, column 1:

The slight increase in pre-prandial and post-prandial bile acids are suggestive of hepatic dysfunction, but other causes of slight elevations, such as pancreatic or gastrointestinal disease, cannot be ruled out.

2015, “Answers”, in Kathleen P. Freeman, Stefanie Klenner, editors, Veterinary Clinical Pathology: A Case-based Approach, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 132:

But the most egregious transgression, at least in her opinion, is his postprandial habit of chomping and crunching on nuts.

2020 May 25, Abby Ellin, “Couples Who Eat Together May Not Stay Together”, in New York Times:


from time to time

So was she trayned vp from time to time, / In all chast vertue, and true bounti-hed / Till to her dew perfection she was ripened.

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

(obsolete) Continuously from one time to another; at all times, constantly.


scruple

From Old French scrupule, from Latin scrūpulus (“(literally) a small sharp or pointed stone; the twenty-fourth part of an ounce; uneasiness of mind, anxiety, doubt, trouble; scruple”), diminutive of scrūpus (“a rough or sharp stone; anxiety, uneasiness”); perhaps akin to Ancient Greek σκύρος (skúros, “the chippings of stone”), from ξυρόν (xurón, “razor”), from ξύω (xúō, “to scrape”), from Proto-Indo-European *ksunyo-. Doublet of escropulo and escrupulo.

der

If it be ask'd why the Jews divide the Hour into 1080 Scruples, the Author of the Neomeniæ ſet forth by Munſter gives this reaſon fo it, becauſe there is no number that is diviſible into ſo many ſorts as this of 1080 is; for it may be divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, &c.

1704, Giles Strauchius [i.e., Aegidius Strauch II], “Of Minutes, Scruples and Moments”, in Richard Sault, transl., Breviarium Chronologicum. Or A Treatise Describing the Terms and Most Celebrated Characters, Periods and Epocha’s Used in Chronology. By Giles Strauchius, D.D. and Publick Professor in the University of Wittebergh. Now Done into English from the Third Edition, in Latin. By Richard Sault, F.R.S., 2nd corrected edition, London: Printed for A. Bosvile at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, →OCLC, book I (Of some Terms in Chronology, and those the Most Common), § 3, page 8:

The Mahometan year consists of 12 lunar months, each containing 29 days, 12 hours and 792 scruples; (1080 scruples = 1 hour) so that the year contains 354 days, 8 hours and 864 scruples.

[1812, Thomas Watson, “Chronology”, in An Useful Compendium of Many Important and Curious Branches of Science and General Knowledge, Digested, Principally, in Plain and Instructive Tables, to which are Added, some Rational Recreations in Numbers, with Easy and Expeditious Methods of Constructing Magic Squares, and Specimens of Some in the Higher Class, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, Paternoster Row; C. Law, Ave-Maria Lane; by and for R. Rodgers, Whitby, →OCLC, section 4 (The Mahometan Year), page 38:

The most ancient hour was divided into 1,080 scruples. The Jews suppose Issachar to have brought it from heaven.

1864 July 23, George Greenwood, “East of the Jordan”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, number 1917, London: Printed by James Holmes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane, published at the office, 20, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C., by John Francis. [...], →OCLC, page 116, column 1:

A Hebrew unit of time equal to ¹⁄₁₀₈₀ hour.


day in, day out

Even if you like peanut butter sandwiches, eating the same sandwiches day in, day out will get old.

There were derailments happening day in and day out, due in part to 'shunting mishaps' but more frequently involving wagons in freight trains due to a combination of poor track and speed.

2022 January 26, John Crosse, “When the tide turned to a safer railway...”, in RAIL, number 949, page 52:

(idiomatic) Every day; daily; constantly or continuously (especially, of something that has become routine or monotonous).


theretofore

From Middle English ther-to-fore, þeretofore, þer to-fore, þer toforn, þær toforen, from Old English þǣr tōforan, equivalent to there + tofore.


decennium

en-noun

decennium (plural decenniums or decennia)

From Latin decennium, from decennis (“10-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns), from deciēs (“ten times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives). Equivalent to decennial + -ium.

G.B. still has to cope with the heritage of approx. 20 years of consecutive Conservative reigns, just as you guys are getting your act together after almost a decennium of Enlightened Ronnie.

Christian leaders refused even to *look* through Galileo's telescope (as a matter of fact, the Vatican cleared Galileo's name only as late as in the previous decennium).


mooch

If we take Scaramucci’s 10-day figure to be the standard of measurement — one “mooch” — then Pruitt survived an amazing 50.3 mooches, even while enduring more than a dozen scandals, any one of which would have doomed a lesser man.

2018 July 6, Dana Milbank, The Washington Post:

Scaramucci, who jokingly measures time in mooches, a unit equal to approximately 11 days, said he doesn’t necessarily like the version of himself he often sees on screen, but feels director Andrew J. Moscato was accurate.

2018 October 27, John Carucci, “Anthony Scaramucci defends Trump, but doesn't always agree”, in Associated Press (press release)-:

I understand it's her job. But I would point out to people that Stephanie has lasted way more “Mooches” than me.

2019 August 29, Peter Nicholas, “Anthony Scaramucci Wants You to Believe Him This Time”, in The Atlantic:

(US politics, slang, humorous) Synonym of Scaramucci (“unit of time”).


all at once

There are too many to get in the lift all at once, so some must wait.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: All at the same time; all together.


time scale

time scales (plural)
timescale (alternative)

(computer science) The ratio of the duration of time of an event as simulated by an analog computer to the actual duration of time of the event in the physical system under study.


time after time

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Time after time he tries, and time and again, he fails.

(idiomatic) Again and again; repeatedly; every time; always; time and again.


timer

→ Japanese: タイマー (taimā)\

→ Korean: 타이머 (taimeo)

→ Russian: та́ймер (tájmer)

→ Kazakh: таймер (taimer)

→ Ukrainian: та́ймер (tájmer)

start the timer when you hear the gunshot

Agent noun of time: someone or something that times.

A device used to measure amounts of time.

commutateur (d'allumage, de temporisation)

minuterie f compte-minutes (du four, micro-ondes, bombe)

Any electronic function that causes a device to be able to do something automatically after a preset amount of time.

A person who records the time elapsed in a sporting event.


timer

From time (noun) + -er (measurement suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

One characterized by a certain time or time frame, such as their work hours.


quinquennial

Borrowed from Latin quīnquenniālis, from quīnquennium (“5-year period”) + -ālis, from quīnquennis (“5-year”) + -ium (“-ium: forming abstract nouns”), from quīnque (“five”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives).

By a singular coincidence, the great master of the Dorian lyre was born during the celebration of the Pythia, the quinquennial festival of Apollo[…]

1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 3, page 25:

The best data that BEA have come from the quinquennial censuses of business; these are used to “benchmark” the national accounts every five years and to compute new input-output tables.

2024, Jeremy B. Rudd, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, page 56:


quinquennial

Synonym of quinquennium, a five-year period.

(historical) Synonym of quinquennalia, the festival and religious ritual held in the 5th year of a Roman emperor's reign.


HST

Hawaiian Standard Time
w:Hawaiian Standard Time


equinoctial

Inherited from Middle English equinoctial, equinoccial, equinoxial, from Old French equinoxial, from Latin (circulus) aequinoctiālis, from aequinoctium + -alis.

inh+

an equinoctial gale or storm, i.e. one happening at or near the time of the equinox, in any part of the world

(astronomy) Of or relating to the spring or autumnal equinox.


interminable

en-adj

interminable (comparative more interminable, superlative most interminable)

more interminable (comparative)
most interminable (superlative)

From Middle French interminable, from Late Latin interminabilis.

After supper Sir Pitt Crawley began to smoke his pipe; and when it became quite dark, he lighted the rushlight in the tin candlestick, and producing from an interminable pocket a huge mass of papers, began reading them, and putting them in order.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Crawley of Queen’s Crawley”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 61:

The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 193:

It was now a beautiful, moonlit night. The air was crisp and invigorating. Behind them lay the interminable vista of the desert, dotted here and there with an occasional oasis.

1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantyne Books, published 1963, page 87:

Life's interminable succession of stages.

1983 February 5, Joseph Van Ness, “Keeping It Alive”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 28, page 10:

Existing or occurring without interruption or end; ceaseless, unending.

безкраен

existing or occurring without interruption or end


intermittency

en-noun

intermittency (countable and uncountable, plural intermittencies)

The state of being intermittent; periodicity.


stint

From Middle English stinten, from Old English styntan (“to make blunt”) and *stintan (attested in āstintan (“to make dull, stint, assuage”)), from Proto-West Germanic *stuntijan, from Proto-Germanic *stuntijaną and Proto-Germanic *stintaną (“to make short”), probably influenced in some senses by cognate Old Norse *stynta, stytta (“to make short, shorten”).

inh

He had a stint in jail.

That left Maldonado with a 6.2-second lead. Alonso closed in throughout their third stints, getting the gap down to 4.2secs before Maldonado stopped for the final time on lap 41.

2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport:

Lilian Greenwood has ranked boosting diversity and inclusivity among her crowning achievements from her two-year stint chairing the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.

2020 May 20, “Network News: A legacy of greater diversity in transport”, in Rail, page 13:

A period of time spent doing or being something; a spell.

(pracovní) pobyt

a period of time spent doing or being something


lifespan

lifespans (plural)
life span (alternative)

壽命 /寿命

Meronym: healthspan

Some clams have lifespans far longer than those of human beings.

What the devil happened to my year? Another little digit on my lifespan, what a bore.

2011, Felix Hagan, “Just Like All The Rest”, in Dawn Breaks, the Monster Wakes...:

Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

Asari Cultural VI: Due to our lifespan-sometimes reaching 1,000 years of age-we are patient in our decisions, and prefer long-term solutions over short-term gains.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nexus:

The length of time for which an organism lives.

عُمْر

The virtual enterprise forum developed several "classical" management functions for which resources were available throughout its lifespan.

2002, Luis M Camarinha-Matos, Collaborative business ecosystems and virtual enterprises:

The reactor, located in the city of Fuqing city in China’s southeastern Fujian province, was designed to have a 60-year lifespan, with its core equipment domestically produced.

2021 January 30, “China’s first Hualong One nuclear reactor begins operations”, in AP News, archived from the original on 2021-01-30:

(by extension) The length of time for which something exists or is current, valid, or usable.


nighttime

en-noun

nighttime (countable and uncountable, plural nighttimes)

nighttimes (plural)
night time (alternative)
night-time (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nighttime.wav

From Middle English nyght tyme, nyȝttyme, equivalent to night + time. Compare Dutch nachttijd, German Nachtzeit, Danish nattetid, Swedish nattetid. Compare also Middle English nyȝter tyme (“nighttime”), from Old Norse náttartími, nætrtími (“nighttime”).

cog

Nighttime fell like the opening / In the final act of the beginning of time

1986, R.E.M., “Hyena”, in Lifes Rich Pageant:

Smith Barney, for example, goes so far as to shift the hours during which taxi rides home are expensable as nighttime lengthens and shortens, says Moszkowski.

1996, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, volume 50, number 7, page 52:

The hours of darkness between sunset and sunrise; the night.


gestation period

en-noun

gestation period (plural gestation periods)

the average interval between fertilization and birth of a mammal; ranges from 13 days for the opossum to 626 days for the Indian elephant


ohnosecond

/ˈəʊ(ˈ)nəʊˌsɛkənd/

From oh no + second, in imitation of terms like nanosecond and attosecond.

In the ohnosecond (one minuscule fraction of a nanosecond, the time it takes to realize you just made a BIG mistake) that followed, I realized my log of the conversation was lost.

1994, Elizabeth Powell Crowe, The Electronic Traveller: Exploring Alternative Online Systems, Windcrest/McGraw-Hill, →ISBN:

Exabyte Corp. of Boulder entered the consumer and small-office market last year with a product aimed at reducing the number of ohnoseconds experienced annually by computer users.

1 June 1997, Lisa Greim, “Exabyte Takes On The Oh-Ohs”, in Rocky Mountain News:

Before you hit the "send" button — and experience that twinge of regret an ohnosecond later (see "The Top 18 Techno-Jargon Terms," page 259), read over what you've written.

2002, Sandra Choron, Harry Choron, The All-New Book of Lists for Kids, Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, page 257:

Today's declarer took the ace of diamonds and saw that a high diamond in dummy would provide a pitch for his spade loser. So South led a trump to the king next — and regretted it in an ohnosecond.

14 April 2006, Frank Stewart, “Bridge”, in Bangor Daily News:

For example, you ridicule your boss in an e-mail to colleagues and, an ohnosecond after clicking Send, you realize the boss was one of those in the address list.

2008, Ken Cox, ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Inc., →ISBN:

As I sat, the moment seemed to stretch into five minutes of slo-mo "ohnoseconds." As projective A [the (now highly agitated) cat] slid off the table and hit the carpet running, leaving a milk and gumbo vapor trail, projectiles B & C (garlic bread and milk) slid off the table in that order, landing one upon the other, on the top of the ottoman, whereupon they collectively slid slowly off onto the carpet.

2008, Greg Scott, Notes from Beyond the Fringe, iUniverse, published 2009, →ISBN, pages 267–268:

(humorous) The fraction of time between making a mistake and realizing it.


short-lived

en-adj

short-lived (comparative shorter-lived, superlative shortest-lived)

shorter-lived (comparative)
shortest-lived (superlative)
shortlived (alternative)

From short + lived (“having a life, lifed”), equivalent to short + life + -ed. Compare Middle English short-livi, sort-levi (“short-lived”).

But his joy was short-lived, for his fortunes soon changed.

At the end of 1927 the Communists were "purged" from the Kuomintang, and although in 1928 a short-lived soviet government had been proclaimed at Hsunyi, it was crushed by General Feng Yu-hsiang's pro-Nanking troops.

1971, Dick Wilson, “Home and Dry in Shensi”, in The Long March 1935: The Epic of Chinese Communism's Survival, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 227:

Did you know?
The London & North Western that became part of the LMS actually consisted of the older LNWR and the Lancashire & Yorkshire. Their merger came into effect on January 1 1922 to create the biggest but most short-lived "pre-Grouping' company.

2021 August 11, Richard Foster, “A century of railway politics”, in RAIL, number 937, page 42:

Alive or existent for only a short period of time.


time frame

time frames (plural)
timeframe (alternative)
time-frame (alternative)

The period of time during which something is expected to occur, or does occur.


golden age

/ˈɡəʊl.dən eɪd͡ʒ/


of late

I have not visited them of late, but I hear they are doing well.

(idiomatic) In the recent past; recently; lately.


diachrony

en-noun

diachrony (usually uncountable, plural diachronies)

By surface analysis, dia- + chron- + -y; historically, see synchronous § Etymology.

The study of change over time, especially changes to language.


once in a blue moon

See blue moon. First use appears c. 1833. See citation below.

We are no advocates for the eternal system of producing foreign operas to the exclusion of the works of English composers, but once in a blue moon such a thing may be allowed.

1833, J. Lection (publisher), The Athenæum, page 780:

[T]ime expanded and space contracted, and the name Blue Moon took on a symbolic meaning, as if the future, so delicately plausible, were of a kind that might happen once in a blue moon only.

1933, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, published 1973, page 133:

(idiomatic) Very rarely; very infrequently.


earlier

I shall be late because I didn't start earlier.

They were looking for some measuring equipment they had placed in the ice earlier.


me time

→ German: Me-Time

According to data gathered by the online reservations platform OpenTable, solo dining has increased by 29 percent in just the past two years. The No. 1 reason is the need for more “me time.”

2025 January 8, Derek Thompson, “The Anti-Social Century”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:

Baths are inevitably associated with licentious pleasure: the most generous expression of the “me time” age.

2025 June 7, Jo Ellison, “Breakfast in bath—yes or eurgh?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 21:

(uncountable, informal) Time to oneself; a period spent relaxing or engaging in a hobby on one's own.

temps pour moi

time to oneself; a period spent relaxing on one's own


terminus ante quem

From the Latin terminus (“boundary, limit”) and ante (“before”) and quem (“which”), the accusative of quī (“what”). Literally meaning "the limit before which".

The date before which a document must have been written.

The date before which an archaeological artifact must have been deposited.


terminus post quem

From Latin terminus post quem non licet (“the point after which is not allowed”).

bor

The earliest possible date for an event. For example, the latest date on a coin in a hoard of objects is the earliest possible date of its deposit.


postponement

en-noun

postponement (countable and uncountable, plural postponements)

The lawyer asked for a postponement in the trial so he could spend more time preparing before it began.

The postponement of homosexual behavior in men who know that they are homosexual can cause psychological anxiety and retard mature ego development.

1976 February 7, Philip Gambone, “Coming Out: The Gay Identity Process”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 4:

A delay, as a formal delay in a proceeding.


impending

I have no time right now because of an impending paper submission deadline.

"Keep off Conductor Rails" said red-painted notices at the platform ends, for third-rails were laid in many places even where electric trains never normally ran, and there had been many rumours of impending electrification of the Wirral, as a natural extension of the Mersey system, a quarter of a century before the change was actually made.

1954 March, W. A. Tuplin, “Recollections of the Wirral Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:

Randall and Kate aren’t satirical characters. They’re rational thinkers who unwittingly stumble into a Dr. Strangelove type of situation when they discover mankind’s impending doom, and team up with Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) to report their findings to President Orlean (Meryl Streep).

2021 December 7, Jesse Hassenger, “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look Up”, in AV Club:

Approaching; drawing near; about to happen or expected to happen.


chiliasm

chiliasms (plural)
Chiliasm (alternative)

From Ancient Greek χιλιασμός (khiliasmós), from χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”).

It was, however, in the Puritan movement in England, and in similar movements on the continent — especially the Bohemian Brethren — that chiliasm asserted its greatest vitality as an historical force.

1975, Gershom Gerhard Scholem (translated by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky), Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, page 101:

One of them, bureaucratic conservatism, represented the routinized sphere of administration, whereas the other, chiliasm, gave rise to the utopian consciousness and modern politics.

1985, Colin Loader, The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim, page 104:

It is a known fact that Bolshevism has unmistakable characteristics of apocalyptic chiliasm, albeit misinterpreted in a physical, earthly way.

2008, Detlef Garbe, Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, page 49:

Belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity, sometimes equated with the return of Jesus for that period.

chiliasme

belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity


chiliad

From Latin chilias (“the number 1000, a group of 1000 things”), possibly via French chiliade, from Ancient Greek χιλιάς (khiliás, “the number 1000, any large amount, a millennium”), from χῑ́λιοι (khī́lioi, “1000”) + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, “-ad: forming collective nouns”). Equivalent to chilia- + -ad.

bor

Synonym of millennium: a period of 1000 years.