perpetuate

en-verb

perpetuate (third-person singular simple present perpetuates, present participle perpetuating, simple past and past participle perpetuated)

perpetuates (present singular third-person)
perpetuating (participle present)
perpetuated (participle past)
perpetuated (past)
perpetuate (infinitive)
perpetuate (first-person present singular)
perpetuated (first-person past singular)
perpetuate (present second-person singular)
perpetuatest (archaic present second-person singular)
perpetuated (past second-person singular)
perpetuatedst (archaic past second-person singular)
perpetuates (present singular third-person)
perpetuateth (archaic present singular third-person)
perpetuated (past singular third-person)
perpetuate (plural present)
perpetuated (past plural)
perpetuate (present subjunctive)
perpetuated (past subjunctive)
perpetuate (imperative present)
perpetuating (participle present)
perpetuated (participle past)

(16th century) From earlier perpetuat, learned borrowing from Latin perpetuātus (“perpetuated”), perfect passive participle of perpetuō (“to cause to continue uninterruptedly, to proceed with continually, to make perpetual, perpetuate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from perpetuus (“everlasting, perpetual”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), from per- (“thoroughly, very”) + petō (“to ask, request; to look for; to make for (somewhere)”) + -uus (forms adjectives from verbal stems), literally “that is asked with great zeal, over and over again”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly”).
Cognates
* Catalan perpetuar
* Italian perpetuare
* Old French perpetué (adjective) (Middle French perpetué (adjective)); Middle French perpétuer (verb) (modern French perpétuer (verb))
* Old Occitan perpetuar
* Portuguese perpetuar
* Spanish perpetuar

der

/pəˈpɛt͡ʃʊeɪt/

/pɚˈpɛt͡ʃəˌweɪt/

使……永存

I am contented to contynue it for my tyme, but to perpetuate it lyeth nat in my power.

To the ſupportiue perpetuating of your canonized reputation, vvholie this booke haue I deſtined.

1593, Tho[mas] Nashe, “[https://books.google.com/books?id=tPFiAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP16 To the Most Honored, and Vertvovs Beavtified Ladie, the Ladie Elizabeth Carey: […]]”, in Christs Teares Over Ierusalem. […], London: […] Iames Roberts, and are to be solde by Andrewe Wise, […], →OCLC:

Noah gaue a ſacrifice of praiſe for his deliuerie from the floud, and God being praiſed for that one deliuerance, perpetuateth his benefit, and promiſeth an euerlaſting deliuerance to the earth from any more flouds.

1619, Francis Rous, “Of Prayer”, in The Arte of Happines. […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Iohn Parker, […], →OCLC, pages 342–343:

The ſecond part of the Tropick, perpetuateth the Council of State, by the election of five Knights, out of the firſt Region of the Senate, to be the firſt Region of that Council, conſiſting of fifteen Knights, five in every Region.

1656, James Harrington, “Epitome of the Whole Common-wealth”, in The Commonwealth of Oceana, London: […] [John Streater] for D[aniel] Pakeman, […], →OCLC, page 276:

Then Bl——re ſhall this Favour ovve to thee, / That thou perpetuat'ſt his Memory.

1711, James Drake, “To Dr. Garth, on the Fourth Edition of His Incomparable Poem, The Dispensary; Occasion’d by Some Lines in the Satyr against Wit”, in Thomas Brown, compiler, The Fourth Volume of the Works of Mr. Thomas Brown, […], London: […] Sam[uel] Briscoe, and sold by J[ohn] Morphew […], and Ja[mes] Woodward […], →OCLC, page 199:

I am very well pleased with a medal which was struck by Queen Elizabeth, a little after the defeat of the invincible armada, to perpetuate the memory of that extraordinary event.

1712 February 16 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “TUESDAY, February 5, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 293; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 463:

The republic of Paris will endeavour indeed to compleat the debauchery of the army, and illegally to perpetuate the aſſembly, vvithout reſort to its constituents, as the means of continuing its deſpotiſm.

1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 78:

Thou know'st, who by thy light upliftedst me, / When the revolvement, thou perpetuatest, / Desired One, attentive made me through / The harmony, thou blend'st and alternatest.

1854, Dante [Alighieri], “Canto I”, in C[harles] B[agot] Cayley, transl., Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Paradise: Translated in the Original Ternary Rhyme, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 5, lines 75–78:

[T]he Constitution's doctrine of enumerated powers and federalism also plays a role in perpetuating individual rights.

1996, Lane V. Sunderland, “The Constitution, The Federalist, and Constitutional Principles”, in Popular Government and the Supreme Court: Securing the Public Good and Private Rights, Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, →ISBN, part I (Theoretical Foundations of the Constitution), page 56:

The educational institution is, then, one of the ways in which society is perpetuated through the systematic socialization of the young, while the nature of the society which is being perpetuated—its organization and operation, its value, beliefs, and ways of living—are determined by the primary institutions.

2007, Harry L. Gracey, “Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp”, in James M. Henslin, editor, Down to Earth Sociology, 14th edition, New York, N.Y., London: Free Press, →ISBN, part VIII (Social Institutions), page 447:

(transitive) To make (something) perpetual; to make (something) continue for an indefinite time; also, to preserve (something) from extinction or oblivion.

If vvitneſſes to a diſputable fact are old and infirm, it is very uſual to file a bill to perpetuate the teſtimony of thoſe vvitneſſes, although no ſuit is depending; for, it may be, a man's antagoniſt only vvaits for the death of ſome of them to begin his ſuit. This is moſt frequent vvhen lands are deviſed by vvill avvay from the heir at lavv; and the deviſee, in order to perpetuate the teſtimony of the vvitneſſes to ſuch vvill, exhibits a bill in chancery againſt the heir, […]

1768, William Blackstone, “Of Proceedings in the Courts of Equity”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 450:

It appears to me that this bill makes out no case for perpetuating testimony. Although it was true that the validity of the will could not, by reason of the lease, be immediately tried with the devises in trust, yet it may be immediately tried by an action for rent against the tenant. Testimony can be perpetuated only where by no means the Plaintiff can presently assert his title to the property.

1822 December 17, John Leach, Vice-Chancellor, “Dew v. Clarke”, in The English Reports, volume LVII (Vice-Chancellor’s Court, volume II), Edinburgh: William Green & Sons; London: Stevens & Sons, published October 1905, →OCLC, page 46:

(law) To record (the testimony of a witness) which may be lost before a matter comes to trial.


perpetuate

From earlier preparat (see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more).

/pəˈpɛt͡ʃʊət/

/pɚˈpɛt͡ʃəˌweɪt/

The wele suertie and comfort perpetuat of theym ther heires and successours.

1503-1504, “32, Preambule”, in Act 19, Henry VII:

The trees and flowers remain / By Nature's care perpetuate and self-sown.

1801, Robert Southey, “The First Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 24:

To be perpetuate for my mightiness / Sculpture must image me when I am gone.

1922, Thomas Hardy, “The Children and Sir Nameless”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 134:

(archaic except poetic) Perpetual, or made perpetual; continued for an indefinite time.


permanently

en-adv

permanently (comparative more permanently, superlative most permanently)

more permanently (comparative)
most permanently (superlative)

From Middle English permanently; equivalent to permanent + -ly.

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

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


menstrual

From Middle English menstruall, from Latin mēnstruālis, from mēnstrua (“menses”), from neuter plural of mēnstruus (“of a month, monthly, of menstruation”), from mēnsis (“month”) + -ālis (“-al”); see moon.

menstruall (alternative obsolete)
menstral (alternative nonstandard possibly proscribed)

(dated) Occurring once a month; monthly.

a menstrual flower


menstrual

menstruals (plural)
menstruall (alternative obsolete)
menstral (alternative nonstandard possibly proscribed)

“All that drama for what” I thought. All she had to do was tell me that I was having my menstrual. So much for band aids.

2012, Miryom Willis, Shirley Fisher, Trials, Tragedy, Triumphs, page 11:


synchrony

en-noun

synchrony (countable and uncountable, plural synchronies)

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

synchronicity, the state of two or more events occurring at the same time.


mists of time

lost in the mists of time

Far back in the mists of ancient time, in the great and glorious days of the former Galactic Empire, life was wild, rich and largely tax free.

1979 October 12, Douglas Adams, chapter 15, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, London: Pan Books, →ISBN, page 89:

(idiomatic, also poetic, literary) Any time so long ago that history is no longer clear, as though lost in a mist or fog.


fin de siècle

fins de siècle (plural)
fin-de-siècle (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fin de siècle.wav

Borrowed from French fin-de-siècle (literally “end of the century”).

bor

From these conversations, most of which took place on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, a picture emerged in which America's closest allies are looking on with a kind of stunned incomprehension, unsure of what will happen, what it means, and what they should do, largely bound together with angst and a shared sense, as one influential adviser told me, that America and the West are approaching something of a fin de siècle.

2020 June 24, Tom McTague, “The Decline of the American World”, in The Atlantic:


synchronic

/sɪŋˈkɹɑnɪk/

/sɪŋˈkɹɒnɪk/

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


daytime

en-noun

daytime (usually uncountable, plural daytimes)

daytimes (plural)
day-time (alternative)

In the daytime the beds are made up but completely out of sight, giving the passenger a comfortable little private room; as the time for retiring comes, after preparing for rest in the same spacious conditions, he is able, practically at a touch, to pull the bed into position ready for use.

1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:

The time of daylight; the time between sunrise and sunset.


lustrum

refn

From the collection of the Louvre in Paris, France.

[A]ll theſe Magiſtrates were elected by, and from, the whole promiſcuous Body of the People in their public Aſſemblies; that after the Inſtitution of Cenſors, it was look'd upon as a Matter of Form only, that they should enroll the new Senators at the next general Luſtrum, or Survey of the Commonwealth; […]

1746 February 28, “A Treatise on the Roman Senate, in Two Parts. By Conyers Middleton, D.D. Principal Library-keeper of the University of Cambridge. Printed for R. Manby, and H. S. Cox, 1747. Octavo. 169 Pages.”, in The Museum: Or, The Literary and Historical Register, volume II, number XXV, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 409:

The interval of time supposed to have been denoted by the Roman Lustrum has been made the subject of controversy. No one however as far as we know has ever assumed it at less than four years or as more than five; so that the status quæstionis may so far be considered as fixed and agreed upon: and all that we have to do at present is to begin with inquiring whether the Roman Lustrum was more properly a period of five years or one of four.

1854, Edward Greswell, “Dissertation X. On the Lustral Cycle of the Romans and on the Initia Censoria”, in Origines Kalendariæ Italicæ, Nundinal Calendars of Ancient Italy, Nundinal Calendar of Romulus, Calendar of Numa Pompilius, Calendar of the Decemvirs, Irregular Roman Calendar, and Julian Correction. Tables of the Roman Calendar, from U.C. 4 of Varro B.C. 750 to U.C. 1108 A.D. 355. … In Four Volumes, volume II, Oxford: At the University Press, →OCLC, chapter I, section II (On the Proper Measure of the Lustral Cycle), page 248:

(historical) A lustration: a ceremonial purification of the people of Rome performed every five years after the census.

lustre

ceremonial purification of all the people — see also lustration

We puſh Time from us, and we wiſh Him back; / Laviſh of Luſtrums, and yet fond of Life; / Life we think long, and ſhort; Death ſeek, and ſhun; […]

1742–1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Second. On Time, Death, Friendship. Humbly Inscrib’d to the Right Honourable the Earl of Wilmington.”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 29, lines 172–174:

Thus passed away two lustra of her life, and, as yet, my daughter remained nameless upon the earth. "My child," and "my love," were the designations usually prompted by a father's affection, and the rigid seclusion of her days precluded all other intercourse. Morella's name died with her at her death. Of the mother I had never spoken to the daughter;—it was impossible to speak.

1835 April, Edgar Allan Poe, “Morella”, in The Southern Literary Messenger: Devoted to Every Department of Literature, and the Fine Arts, Richmond, Va.: T. W. White, →OCLC; republished in The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: In Four Volumes, volume I, New York, N.Y.: W. J. Widdleton, publisher, 1849, →OCLC, page 473:

I am hardly, if I do not deceive myself, twenty years old, and already, dearest Rosamunda, there weigh upon my existence twenty lustrums, and of these twenty lustrums I have drunk the bitterness of intranquility even to the dregs, without having done more than touched with my lips the joy of the first days of my childhood beside you.

1852, Adadus Calpe [pseudonym; Antonio Diodoro de Pascual], chapter XIV, in Henry Edgar, transl., The Two Fathers. An Unpublished Original Spanish Work. … Translated into the English Language by the Author, and Henry Edgar. Part Second: Hector Alone, New York, N.Y.: Stringer & Townsend, publishers, […]; George P[almer] Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 189:

Q. Now, sir, if you would be so kind as to guess upon his age. / A. Forty five years are certain. I would guess a lustrum more.

1985, John Fowles, A Maggot, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN:

(by extension, literary) Synonym of quinquennium: Any 5-year period.


primordial

From the Latin prīmōrdiālis (“of the beginning”). Compare primordium and -al.

Of an element or isotope: occurring primordially (on Earth) (i.e. inherited from when the Earth was formed); because it is stable, or radioactive but so long-lived that some is left over from when the Earth was formed. For example, primordial radioisotopes (T = half-life in years) include uranium-235 (T = 7×10⁸), potassium-40 (T = 1.25×10⁹), uranium-238 (T = 4.5×10⁹), and thorium-232 (T = 1.4×10¹⁰).


time of day

that's how it was in that time of day [ = at that time, back in that day]

(dialectal, informal, dated) era: time; day.


time of the month

en-noun

time of the month (plural times of the month)

times of the month (plural)
TOM (alternative)
that time of the month (alternative)

I'm so, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just... I'm just a little bit, you know... Well, I've got you know at the moment, so... I've got Aunt Irma visiting.
Do you not like Aunt Irma? I've got an aunt like that.
It's my term for... my time of the month.
What time of the month? The weekend?

2006 Mar. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 6

You have to admit, however, that during that time of the month, we are not at our most likable. Let's face it. We are swollen up like an overfed slug, our breath stinks, the tiniest irritant is magnified ten thousand times, and we cry at the drop of a hat.

2014, Becky Rutledge, Miss Becky's Charm School, Citadel Press, →ISBN:

It’s that time, that time of the month / Well I woke up early and I got a hunch

2014, “Crimson Wave”, in NVM, performed by Tacocat:

(euphemistic) Synonym of menstruation: the monthly period during which a fertile woman menstruates.


time bomb

time bombs (plural)
timebomb (alternative)
time-bomb (alternative)

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

A bomb that has a mechanism such that detonation can be preset to a particular time.

Donald Gene Burleson was prosecuted on felony charges for planting a time bomb that, shortly after he was fired, deleted more than 168,000 brokerage records of USPA & IRA in Fort Worth, Texas.

1994, Peter G. Neumann, Computer-Related Risks, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN:

(computing) A malicious program designed to perform a destructive action at a certain date or time.

aikapommi

computing: program designed to perform a destructive action at a certain date and/or time

Even so, they managed to morph the recent European parliamentary elections into a time bomb and plant it under their country’s own future.

2014 June 6, Françoise Fressoz, “France’s Ticking Time Bomb”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Someone must explain to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.

2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

The pandemic preparation timebomb detonated to devastating effect; a number of other timebombs are on the shortest of fuses. The government has now reached a state of perfect vicious cycle, when the only thing worse than the things it does are all the things it didn’t get round to doing.

2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian:

(figuratively) A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time.


time capsule

aikakapseli

something reflecting an historical setting

As we've seen, Belarus is a Soviet time capsule that continues only because Russia is keeping it on life support.

2011, Francis Tapon, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, page 135:

(figuratively) An object, place, or collection that encapsulates and preserves the characteristics, culture or essence of a particular time period, usually due to isolation or some specific external influence.


time deposit

(banking) A deposit in a bank that cannot be withdrawn before a specified date.


time immemorial

time immemorial (usually uncountable, plural times immemorial)

from time immemorial

My home is in the North of Palestine on the other side of Jordan, beyond the Sea of Galilee. My family has dwelt there from time immemorial, but they always loved this city, and have a legend that they dwelt occasionally within its walls, even in the days when Titus from that hill looked down upon the temple.

1870, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XVII, in Lothair. […], volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 177–178:

The tower had been consecrated to this ancient diversion from time immemorial, the western façade conveniently forming the boundary of the churchyard at that end, where the ground was trodden hard and bare as a pavement by the players.

1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:

She had worn from time immemorial an old blue satin dress, and a white crape shawl embroidered in colors; […]

1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC; republished as Roderick Hudson (EBook #176), U.S.A.: Project Gutenberg, 18 September 2016:

In every Circular or Polygonal household it has been a habit from time immemorial[…]that the mothers and daughters should constantly keep their eyes and mouths towards their husband and his male friends; and for a lady in a family of distinction to turn her back upon her husband would be regarded as a kind of portent, involving loss of status.

1884, A Square [pseudonym; Edwin A. Abbott], Flatland […] , London: Seeley & Co., Part I: This World, § 4.— Concerning the Women:

The Communists have no need to introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial.

1888 [1848], Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, translation of Das Kommunistische Manifest by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels:

This is a great tract of a hundred thousand acres, which from time immemorial has been a hunting preserve of the nobility.

1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:

That there is and from time immemorial has been within that part of the parish called Mablethorpe St. Mary's a laudable custom that, if any outdweller take ancient pasture ground, he shall pay a modus of 4d. an acre, and so in proportion, on the 1st of August, in lieu of all manner of tithe; and that if any of the ancient pasture be once ploughed up or meadowed, it shall, when restored to pasture again, pay 4d. the acre in the hands of such outdweller.

1917, The English Reports: Exchequer, page 789:

This thing is a "pyramid" since time immemorial, shit goes downhill, money goes up: it's that simple.

2002 September 15, David Chase, “For All Debts Public and Private”, in The Sopranos, season 4, episode 1, spoken by Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini):

(countable, uncountable) Time that extends beyond memory or record.

time that extends beyond memory or record

有史以前 (yǒushǐ yǐqián, literally “before history”)


time out of mind

time out of mind (plural times out of mind)

They were Episcopalians, and for time out of mind had rented a half-pew in the church of their denomination on California Street.

(idiomatic) A lengthy duration of time, longer than is readily remembered.


time out of mind

Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut / Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, / Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.

1599, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet:

Our constitution is a prescriptive constitution; it is a constitution, whose sole authority is, that it has existed time out of mind.

1782 May 7, Edmund Burke, Speech on a motion made in the House of Commons, the 7th of May 1782, for a committee to enquire into the state of the representation of the Commons in Parliament:

The very solicitors’ boys who have kept the wretched suitors at bay, by protesting time out of mind that Mr Chizzle, Mizzle, or otherwise was particularly engaged and had appointments until dinner, may have got an extra moral twist and shuffle into themselves out of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

1853, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House:

I tell you that Cashel never was beaten, although times out of mind it would have paid him better to lose than to win.

1882, George Bernard Shaw, chapter 13, in Cashel Byron's Profession:

(idiomatic, dated) For a lengthy period of time; on numerous occasions.


timeless

en-adj

timeless (comparative more timeless, superlative most timeless)

more timeless (comparative)
most timeless (superlative)

timely

antonym(s) of “done at an improper time”

Must I behold thy timeless, cruel death?

c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, act V, scene 4:

The lamp of day is quench’d beneath the deep,
And soft approach the balmy hours of sleep:
Nor fits it to prolong the heav’nly feast
Timeless, indecent, but retire to rest.

1725, Alexander, transl. Pope, The Odyssey of Homer, book 3, London: Bernard Lintot, translation of The Odyssey by Homer, page 143, lines 427–430:

(obsolete) Done at an improper time; unseasonable; untimely.

The cave carvings have a timeless beauty.

Not decreasing over time in quality and appeal.

неостаряващ

not decreasing over time in quality and appeal

a timeless cricket match


time limit

time limits (plural)
time-limit (alternative)

A time by which something must be finished.


to date

To date, they have sold only 500 copies of the book.

HONAN HYDROELECTRIC POWER—To date Wu-chih County has built 101 small hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 6,118 kw.

1977 November 28 [1977 October 18], “Briefs”, in Translations on People's Republic of China, number 404, United States Joint Publications Research Service, →OCLC, page 22:

(idiomatic) Until now; until the present time.


continual

From Middle English continuel, from Old French continuel, formed from Latin continuus (“continuous”) with the suffix -el, equivalent to continue + -al.

(proscribed) Seemingly continuous; appearing to have no end or interruption.


flicker

en-verb

flicker (third-person singular simple present flickers, present participle flickering, simple past and past participle flickered)

flickers (present singular third-person)
flickering (participle present)
flickered (participle past)
flickered (past)

From Middle English flikeren (“to flutter”), from Old English flicerian, flicorian (“to flutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *flikurōn.
Akin to Saterland Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”),
West Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”), Dutch flikkeren (“to flicker, flutter”), German Low German flickern (“to light up, flash, flicker”). Compare Old English flacor (“flickering, fluttering”), German flackern (“to flicker, flutter”), Old English flēogan (“to fly”).

cog

A strong desire to smash up everything in the room kept flickering in his head.

There I lay on one side with a thin and rotten plank between the dead man and me, dazed with the blow to my head, and breathing hard; while the glow of torches as they came down the passage reddened and flickered on the roof above.

[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without distinction.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, / And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.

1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 13:

1967, Barry Mason (writer), Tom Jones (performer), Delilah
I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window / I saw the flickering shadow of love on her blind

In a city where media companies and hospitals have armed guards, this accessibility is unusual. Inside, drivers sit and chat in between shifts, the overhead fan whirring and causing the dim electric light to flicker over their faces.

2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(intransitive) To keep going on and off; to appear and disappear for short moments; to flutter.


daylight saving time

en-noun

daylight saving time (countable and uncountable, plural daylight saving times)

daylight saving times (plural)
daylight-saving time (alternative)
daylight savings time (alternative)
daylight saving (alternative)
daylight savings (alternative)
daylight time (alternative)

2005: answers.firstgov.gov -- Daylight Saving Time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. ... The American law by which we turn our clock forward in the spring and back in the fall is known as the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The law does not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time; all the law requires is that if we are going to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must be done uniformly. http://answers.firstgov.gov/cgi-bin/gsa_ict.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=6880

The practice in some places of adjusting clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall, usually by one hour, so that the adjustment causes the time to coincide with the greatest period of illumination by the sun over the course of the day.

ля́тно вре́ме

an adjustment of the official time during summer

náʼoolkiłí tʼááłáʼí ahééʼílkid bee náás ninádajiiłkeed


quadrennial

quadrennials (plural)
quadriennial (alternative)

Borrowed from Latin quadriennium (“four-year period”), from quattuor (“four”) + annus (“year”). By surface analysis, quadr- + -ennial.

International rowing's elite tend to think in terms of quadrennials — the four-year cycle between Olympic Games — but the addition of the light women's double to Olympic program prior to the 1996 Atlanta Games has also brought distinct eras to the event.

2002, Rowing News, volume 9, number 14, page 20:


timestamp

timestamps (plural)
time-stamp (alternative)

From time + stamp (noun); the verb sense derives from the noun.

(especially computing) A variable containing the date and time at which an event occurred, often included in a log to track the sequence of events.

(Internet, video) The time at which something in a video occurs.


timestamp

en-verb

timestamp (third-person singular simple present timestamps, present participle timestamping, simple past and past participle timestamped)

timestamps (present singular third-person)
timestamping (participle present)
timestamped (participle past)
timestamped (past)
time-stamp (alternative)

(transitive, especially computing) To record the date and time of (an event, etc).


DTC

Initialism of Daylight Time Coordinated.


timing

en-noun

timing (countable and uncountable, plural timings)

→ Cantonese: timing

→ Danish: timing

→ Dutch: timing

→ French: timing

→ Japanese: タイミング (taimingu)

→ Portuguese: timing

→ Spanish: timing

perfect timing

(countable, uncountable) The time when something happens.


sync

en-verb

sync (third-person singular simple present syncs, present participle synching or syncing, simple past and past participle synched or synced)

syncs (present singular third-person)
synching (participle present)
syncing (participle present)
synched (participle past)
synched (past)
synced (participle past)
synced (past)
synch (alternative)

Our cloud storage automatically syncs your files to all your devices.

(informal) To synchronize, especially in the senses of data synchronization, time synchronization, or synchronizing music with video.


punctual

en-adj

punctual (comparative more punctual, superlative most punctual)

more punctual (comparative)
most punctual (superlative)
punctuall (alternative obsolete)

/ˈpʌŋt͡ʃuəl/

Borrowed from Medieval Latin pūnctuālis (“relating to a point”), from Late Latin pūnctus (“point”) + -ālis (adjective suffix).

bor+

Of an event, happening at the appointed time.

Luis is never late; he's the most punctual person I know.

Of a person, acting at the appointed time.


year 2000 problem

en-noun

year 2000 problem (plural year 2000 problems)

efecto 2000

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


lifelong

life-long (alternative)
life long (alternative)

They were lifelong friends; they met in elementary school and ended their lives in the same rest home.

He studied English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and developed a lifelong interest in medieval history as a result of reading Chaucer.

2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian:

She bought the model as a surprise gift for a friend who is a lifelong HST fan and railwayman, and who will soon be celebrating a milestone birthday.

2021 October 20, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 942, page 71:

Extending for the entire duration of life.

пожизнен

extending for the entire duration of life


hourly

Express buses depart hourly.

Commencement of a two-hourly service pattern by GWR marked the return of regular services to Okehampton for the first time since their withdrawal in 1972. There are plans to extend this to hourly.

2022 January 12, “Network News: Thousands savour Okehampton visit”, in RAIL, number 948, page 11:


eternally

From Middle English eternally, eternaly; equivalent to eternal + -ly.

eternity ring ethacridine: ethacridine lactate ethacrynic: ethacrynic acid

I shall be eternally grateful for your assistance.


eventual

/ɪˈvɛnt͡ʃəl/

From event + -ual; compare French éventuel. The third sense is influenced by any of several European languages, including German eventuell, French éventuel, Italian eventuale, Spanish eventual, Swedish eventuell.

Finally resulting or occurring (after a period of time); inevitable.


synchronous

en-adj

synchronous (comparative more synchronous, superlative most synchronous)

more synchronous (comparative)
most synchronous (superlative)

Translingual: ␖

/ˈsɪŋkɹənəs/

Borrowed from Late Latin synchronus, from Ancient Greek σύγχρονος (súnkhronos, “contemporaneous”), from σῠν- (sŭn-, “with, together”) + χρόνος (khrónos, “time”). By surface analysis, syn- + chron- + -ous = synchrony + -ous; however, all related words (e.g., synchronic, synchrony, synchronicity, diachronous, diachronic, diachrony, diachronicity) were coined later, either as back-formations from, or otherwise by analogy with the surface analysis of, synchronous.

surf

At the same time, at the same frequency.


chronologically

en-adv

chronologically (comparative more chronologically, superlative most chronologically)

more chronologically (comparative)
most chronologically (superlative)

/ˌkɹɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkəli/

His chapters are arranged thematically, not chronologically.

(sequence) In sequence according to time.


perpetuity

en-noun

perpetuity (countable and uncountable, plural perpetuities)

From Middle English perpetuitee, perpetuite, perpetuyte, from Old French perpetüité, ultimately from Latin perpetuitās.

Perpetuity in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Mr. Waller adds that when the railway was authorised in 1897, one of the clauses of the Act authorising the transfer of the line to the North British Railway provided that that company should work it in perpetuity, and it was this clause that caused the interim interdict to be granted.

1951 April, “Notes and News: North Fife Line, Scotland”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 281:

The gnomic belief that the world is conditioned by love is no idle apothegm. Love, as the instrument of creative agencies and cosmic perpetuity, is no banausic conception.

1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page i:

(uncountable) The quality or state of being perpetual; endless duration; uninterrupted existence.

(countable, law) A limitation intended to be unalterable and of indefinite duration; a disposition of property which attempts to make it inalienable beyond certain limits fixed or conceived as being fixed by the general law.

(countable, finance) An annuity in which the periodic payments begin on a fixed date and continue indefinitely.

пожизнена рента

an annuity in which the periodic payments begin on a fixed date and continue indefinitely


ceaselessly

en-adv

ceaselessly (comparative more ceaselessly, superlative most ceaselessly)

more ceaselessly (comparative)
most ceaselessly (superlative)

So the woods are silent, still, and deserted, save by a stray rabbit among the thistles, and the grasshoppers ceaselessly leaping in the grass.

1905, Richard Jefferies, Nature Near London:

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 9, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 182:


perennially

perennially (comparative more perennially, superlative most perennially)

more perennially (comparative)
most perennially (superlative)


timestream

timestreams (plural)
time stream (alternative)

By killing his great-grandfather, the time traveller disrupted the timestream.

The slightest excess of effort might upset the balance at any point of the time stream, sending them backward into the past or forward into the future independently of my will.

[1931 December, Eric Temple Bell, “The Time Stream”, in Wonder Stories:

The timestream is littered with these blank areas.

Two different timestreams running parallel but at different speeds. Amy, you're in a faster timestream.

2011, Tom MacRae, “The Girl Who Waited”, in Nick Hurran, director, Doctor Who, season 6, episode 10, spoken by The Doctor (Matt Smith):

(science fiction, mythology) A metaphorical conception of time as a stream, or flowing body of water.


nychthemeron

en-noun

nychthemeron (plural nychthemera or nychthemerons)

nychthemera (plural)
nychthemerons (plural)
nycthemere (alternative)
nycthemeron (alternative)

/nɪkˈθɛməɹɑn/

From Ancient Greek νυχθήμερον (nukhthḗmeron), noun use of the neuter singular form of νυχθήμερος (nukhthḗmeros, “lasting a day and night”), from νύξ (núx, “night”) + ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”).

It has not yet been found by Observation, whether Mercury turns upon its own Axis, ... that is, whether it has the vicissitude of Day and Night, much less what is the space of its Nychthemeron or Natural Day; but one may safely enough conjecture that it does revolve about its Axis, since the other Planets do.

1715, David Gregory, The Elements of Astronomy, Physical and Geometrical, volume 2:

Ideler passes over the Indians, and with good reason ; for they had not the week, and could not have had it, since they divided the nychthemeron into thirty hours, which the following out the same method would give rise to an entirely different series of planetary regents.

1839, The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume XXII, Black and Armstrong (London), page 181:

Now, the Arabs assumed as the beginning of their Nychthemeron the point where the setting sun intersects the circle of the horizon. Therefore their Nychthemeron extends from the moment when the sun disappears from the horizon till his disappearance on the following day.

1879, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Bīrūnī, translated by C. Edward Sachau, The Chronology of Ancient Nations: An English Version of the Arabic Text of the Athâr-ul-Bâkiya, translation of original in Arabic:

For the division of the nychthemeron into equal parts, we are indebted to the Sumerians. Following the fiction of the ideal year of 12 months of 30 days to each, they divided the nychthemeron into 12 danna (46), each of 30 giš (47).

1936, Osiris, History of Science Society, page 112:

Geminus says in his Introduction to the Phenomena (VI, 1-4) that the nychthemeron (a day and night together) is not of constant length.

1998, James Evans, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy:

The Hindus consider the day as the first, the night as the second, part of the nychthemeron. There-fore they call the former Sâvana, i.e. a day depending on the rising of the sun. Besides, they call it Manu-shyâhorâtra, i.e. a human day, because, in fact, the great mass of their people do not know of any other kind of day but this.

2000, William Wilson Hunter Sir, Sekharipuram Vaidyanatha Viswanatha, Clarisse Bader, The Indian Empire: its people, history, and products:

The first sphere moves in each nychthemeron 0° 3′ in opposite sense to the zodiac. The second sphere moves 13° 11′ in each nychthemeron in the sequence of the signs of the zodiac.

1998, Emmanuel A. Paschos, Panagiotis Sotiroudis, The Schemata of the Stars: Byzantine Astronomy from A.D. 1300:

Another difference at this age is the distribution of sleep and wake across the nychthemeron.

2003, William H. Moorcroft, Understanding Sleep and Dreaming, page 30:

A period of one day and one night, a date: in the West, a period of 24 consecutive hours.


Atomic Age

→ Dutch: atoomtijdperk (calque)

/əˈtɒmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

/əˈtɑːmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

The era, starting in the mid-1940s, during which nuclear energy was developed, and in which it was thought that all energy would be provided by such sources.

عصر الذرة

era during which nuclear energy was developed


causality

causality (countable and uncountable, plural causalities)

[kʰɒːˈz̥æl.ɪ.tɪ]

From Latin as if *causalitas, from causalis (“causal”), from causa (“cause”). By surface analysis, causal + -ity = cause + -ality.

But how do transformations like the evolution of language take place? A scientist looks for a cause inside time; a mystic knows that causality is essentially a process that is outside time-space.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 94:

But some discussion of the complex relationship between “allohistory” and sf is appropriate here, as the genres overlap in certain ways. Classical allohistory— such as Trevelyan's "What if Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo?" and Churchill's "If Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg" —is a rigorously consistent thought-experiment in historical causality.

2011 February 1, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, pages 102–103:

The relationship between something that happens or exists and the thing that causes it; the cause and consequence relationship.


prepone

en-verb

prepone (third-person singular simple present prepones, present participle preponing, simple past and past participle preponed)

prepones (present singular third-person)
preponing (participle present)
preponed (participle past)
preponed (past)
pre-pone (alternative)

(chiefly India, transitive) To reschedule to a time earlier than the current scheduled time.


latter-day

/ˈlæt̬əɹ deɪ/

/ˈlæɾəɹ deɪ/

From latter (“close or closer to the present time”) + day.

compound

Of or relating to the last days or end times in various eschatologies.


hebdomadal

From Latin hebdomadālis. According to The Poly-Olbion Project, coined by John Selden in 1612.

The wits and humourists, the distinguished worthies of the town or village, the apothecary, the attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain to partake of this hebdomadal festivity.

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 71:

They quickly weary of this brief hebdomadal Sabbath here, yet they long for that eternal one; they dream of it, they talk about it, they think they think they are going to enjoy it—with all their simple hearts they think they think they are going to be happy in it!

c. 1909, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Letter II”, in Bernard DeVoto, editor, Letters from the Earth, New York, N.Y., Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, published 1962, →LCCN, page 12:


chronon

(physics) A hypothetical quantum or particle of time.


one o'clock

The bar closes at one o'clock (= "The bar closes at 1:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the second hour of the day; 1:00 a.m. (01:00).

пе́рша годи́на f (pérša hodýna, literally “first hour”)

The next train comes at one o'clock (= "The next train comes at 13:00").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the fourteenth hour of the day; 1:00 p.m. (13:00).


two o'clock

The bar closes at two o'clock (= "The bar closes at 2:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the third hour of the day; 2:00 a.m. (02:00).

дру́га годи́на f (drúha hodýna, literally “second hour”)

The next train comes at two o'clock (= "The next train comes at 14:00").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the fifteenth hour of the day; 2:00 p.m. (14:00).


three o'clock

The front desk closes at three o'clock (= "The front desk closes at 3:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the fourth hour of the day; 3:00 a.m. (03:00).

тре́тя годи́на f (trétja hodýna, literally “third hour”)

The next train comes at three o'clock (= "The next train comes at 15:00").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the sixteenth hour of the day; 3:00 p.m. (15:00).


five o'clock

The breakfast buffet opens at five o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 5:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the sixth hour of the day; 5:00 a.m. (05:00).

пять часо́в (pjatʹ časóv, literally “five hours”)

п'я́та годи́на f (pʺjáta hodýna, literally “fifth hour”)

The next train comes at five o'clock (= "The next train comes at 17:00").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the eighteenth hour of the day; 5:00 p.m. (17:00).


four o'clock

The breakfast buffet opens at four o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 4:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the fifth hour of the day; 4:00 a.m. (04:00).

четве́рта годи́на f (četvérta hodýna, literally “fourth hour”)

The next train comes at four o'clock (= "The next train comes at 16:00").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the seventeenth hour of the day; 4:00 p.m. (16:00).


six o'clock

The breakfast buffet opens at six o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 6:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the seventh hour of the day; 6:00 a.m. (06:00).

шесть часо́в (šestʹ časóv, literally “six hours”)

шо́ста годи́на f (šósta hodýna, literally “sixth hour”)

The next train comes at six o'clock (= "The next train comes at 18:00").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the nineteenth hour of the day; 6:00 p.m. (18:00).


seven o'clock

The breakfast buffet opens at seven o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 7:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the eighth hour of the day; 7:00 a.m. (07:00).

семь часо́в (semʹ časóv, literally “seven hours”)

сьо́ма годи́на f (sʹóma hodýna, literally “seventh hour”)

Supper was served at seven o'clock (= "Supper was served at 7:00 p.m.").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the twentieth hour of the day; 7:00 p.m. (19:00).


eight o'clock

The breakfast buffet opens at eight o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 8:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the ninth hour of the day; 8:00 a.m. (08:00).

во́сьма годи́на f (vósʹma hodýna, literally “eighth hour”)

Supper was served at eight o'clock (= "Supper was served at 8:00 p.m.").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the twenty-first hour of the day; 8:00 p.m. (20:00).


ten o'clock

The morning coffee break starts at ten o'clock (= "The morning coffee break starts at 10:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the eleventh hour of the day; 10:00 a.m. (10:00).

де́сять часо́в (désjatʹ časóv, literally “ten hours”)

деся́та годи́на f (desjáta hodýna, literally “tenth hour”)

Supper service ends at ten o'clock (= "Supper service ends at 10:00 p.m.").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the twenty-third hour of the day; 10:00 p.m. (22:00).


eleven o'clock

Breakfast service ends at eleven o'clock (= "Breakfast service ends at 11:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the twelfth hour of the day; 11:00 a.m. (11:00).

оди́ннадцать часо́в (odínnadcatʹ časóv, literally “eleven hours”)

одина́дцята годи́на f (odynádcjata hodýna, literally “eleventh hour”)

Supper service ends at eleven o'clock (= "Supper service ends at 11:00 p.m.").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the twenty-fourth hour of the day; 11:00 p.m. (23:00).


twelve o'clock

en-noun

twelve o'clock (usually uncountable, plural twelve o'clocks)

The next train comes at twelve o'clock (= "The next train comes at noon").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the thirteenth hour of the day; noon (noontime); 12:00 p.m. (12:00).

kaksitoista (päivällä)

start of the thirteenth hour of the day (12 p.m.) — see also midday, noon

двена́дцать часо́в (dvenádcatʹ časóv, literally “twelve hours”)

двана́дцята годи́на f (dvanádcjata hodýna, literally “twelfth hour”)


MST

Mountain Standard Time
Mountain Standard Time#English


MDT

Mountain Daylight Time
Mountain Daylight Time#English


floruit

Unadapted borrowing from Latin flōruit (“he/she/it flourished”), from flōreō (“bloom, flourish”), from flōs (“flower”).

ubor

fl. (alternative abbreviation)
flor. (alternative abbreviation)

Marius Mercator must have shared the vigour of Alcimus, for he floruit in 218 according to Mr. Miller , while he at any rate existed in 418.

1895, Arthur Cayley Headlam, The Church Quarterly Review, page 155:

J. Joyce (floruit 1850)
In 1926 Svevo wrote a letter to James Joyce in Paris inquiring if he were related to the J. Joyce who in 1850 had had printed and published by Lloyd Austriaco in Trieste a book[...]

1993 November 15, Joseph Cary, A Ghost in Trieste, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 230:

Mīrā (Bai). Floruit 16th century. Rajasthan's most famous female saint and poetess of Kṛṣṇa bhakti.

2003, Banāsā, Banasa: A Spiritual Autobiography, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 86:

(defective, rare except abbreviated) lived, used in biographies to indicate a time period during which a person is known to have been alive, when dates of birth and/or death are not known.


floruit

floruits (plural)
fl. (alternative abbreviation)
flor. (alternative abbreviation)

Though Aristotle claimed that a human being reaches his intellectual peak at age forty-nine (Rhetoric 1390b9), chronologists reckon a person's flowering—his floruit—at about age forty. The mists of time have made the precise reckoning of chronology quite difficult. Sometimes, when a birth is not known, a floruit can be estimated on the basis of what is known about an individual's career.

2005, James A. Arieti, Philosophy in the Ancient World, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page xxi:

The time period during which a person, group, culture, etc. is at its peak.


afterward

Inherited from Middle English afterward, from Old English æfterweard; equivalent to after + -ward.


sexennium

en-noun

sexennium (plural sexenniums or sexennia)

From Latin sexennium, from sexennis (“6-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns).


do time

en-verb

do time (third-person singular simple present does time, present participle doing time, simple past did time, past participle done time)

does time (present singular third-person)
doing time (participle present)
did time (past)
done time (participle past)

My wife is unavailable for three months, as she's doing time for fraud.

Yes, Virginia, now Santa's doing time
In a Federal prison for his infamous crime

1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day:

(colloquial) To spend time in prison (as a prisoner) or in the military (as a servicemember).

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime


fifteen hundred

1500 hours, the start of the sixteenth hour of the day (3 pm).


impermanent

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

From Middle French impermanent, from im- + permanent.


half-time

en-noun

half-time (countable and uncountable, plural half-times)

half-times (plural)
halftime (alternative)
half time (alternative)

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

(physics) The time taken for a physical quantity to halve the difference between its present value and its final value.

半衰期

time to halve the difference between present value and final value


half-time

halftime (alternative)
half time (alternative)

I'm working half-time this month (two and a half days per week) before my maternity leave.


Universal Time

A measure of time that conforms, within a close approximation, to the mean diurnal rotation of the Earth and serves as the basis of civil timekeeping.


thenceforth

/ˌðɛnsˈfɔːθ/

/ˌðɛnsˈfɔːɹθ/

From Middle English thennesforth, equivalent to thence + forth.

...to the end, that all such foes to the rights of British-America may be publicly known, and universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty; and thenceforth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her.

1774, First Continental Congress, The Articles of Association:

Furthermore: you must know that when the second iron is thrown overboard, it thenceforth becomes a dangling, sharp-edged terror, skittishly curvetting about both boat and whale, entangling the lines, or cutting them, and making a prodigious sensation in all directions.

1851, Herman Melville, chapter 63, in Moby Dick:

The fear of losing Joe’s confidence, and of thenceforth sitting in the chimney corner at night staring drearily at my forever lost companion and friend, tied up my tongue.

1861, Charles Dickens, chapter VI, in Great Expectations:

1927-1929 — Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, "Nirbal Ke Bala Rama", translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai
I decided to act thenceforth with great caution; not to leave the house, but somehow leave Portsmouth.

Here his hand trembled as he set his pen to the proclamation that declared slaves thenceforth and forever free.

1994 February 12, Bill Clinton, Presidential Radio Address:

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


kairos

The—so-called! friends—rational world. If only they, Mom&Dad&Buddy&Sis, dear-but-square ones, could but know the kairos, the supreme moment…

1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Bantam, published 1997, →ISBN, page 114:

Kairos is not measurable. Kairos is ontological. In kairos we are, we are fully in isness, not negatively, as Sartre saw the isness of the oak tree, but fully, wholly, positively.

1972, Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet (Crosswicks Journals), San Francisco: Harper & Row, →ISBN, page 245:

It is a confrontation and invasion of the eternal into the temporal, what Paul Tillich also refers to in the biblical term kairos as distinguished from chronos or common linear time. Kairos is time qualified by eternal relevance, time that is of significance to the Eternal because it is disturbed by and invested with the eternal.

1980, Howard Alexander Slaatte, Time And Its End, Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 87:

A time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action; the opportune and decisive moment.


downtime

downtime (countable and uncountable, plural downtimes)

downtimes (plural)
down time (alternative)
down-time (alternative)

From down (“out of order; out of service; inoperable”) + time.

compound

A short internet outage might sound like a trifling matter – don’t we all need a little bit of time offline now and then? – but for many, the pervasiveness of the so-called “internet of things” meant downtime at Amazon affected their physical life as well as their digital one.

2017 March 1, Alex Hern, “How did an Amazon glitch leave people literally in the dark?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-30:

Time lost due to the failure of some system or machinery, such as a computer crash or power outage.

فترة التعطيل

amount of time lost due to forces beyond one’s control


chronologize

en-verb

chronologize (third-person singular simple present chronologizes, present participle chronologizing, simple past and past participle chronologized)

chronologizes (present singular third-person)
chronologizing (participle present)
chronologized (participle past)
chronologized (past)
chronologise (alternative)

To establish an order of events based on the time of their occurrence.

asettaa aikajärjestykseen

to establish an order of events based on the time of their occurrence


protracted

en-adj

protracted (comparative more protracted, superlative most protracted)

more protracted (comparative)
most protracted (superlative)

a protracted and bitter dispute

... inheritance of protracted misery ...

1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 5, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

The gleefully sadistic killer pushes Jaime into a fight, telling him that he slept with Cersei, and after a protracted struggle, even sinks his blade into Jaime’s side. But it turns out that a metal hand can be valuable in battle, after all, and Jaime uses it to help sink his own sword into Euron’s stomach

2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-05-15:

Lasting for a long time or longer than expected or usual.

davamlı

lasting for a long time or longer than expected or usual


wartime

en-noun

wartime (countable and uncountable, plural wartimes)

wartimes (plural)
war time (alternative)

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

But, she says, a wartime ban on recordings using shellac and vinyl kept the Walker version from being released.

2002 April 29, Norman Pearlstine, “A Month Of Mondays If that doesn't give you the blues, nothing will. Norman Pearlstine ranks his favorite versions of the classic "Stormy Monday Blues"--one for every doggone working day of the month.”, in CNN Money:

Significant rail projects have been mothballed before in the face of changed circumstances - in particular, the LNER Woodhead project which was postponed due to wartime conditions and not revived until 1948, as money became available after nationalisation.

2020 December 2, Industry Insider, “The costs on cutting carbon”, in Rail, page 76:

(often attributive) A period during which a war is in progress in a particular place.


year-end

His year-end taxes were supposed to be postmarked by December 30.

On or happening at the end of the year (e.g., late December).


Father Time

Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of Father Time himself.

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

A personification of time as an old man, usually carrying an hourglass.


sidereal time

(astronomy) Time measured by the apparent diurnal motion of the vernal equinox; approximated by that based on the rotation of planet Earth relative to the seemingly fixed stars.

恆星時 /恒星时

time measured by apparent motion of vernal equinox


quadrennium

quadrennium (plural quadrenniums or quadrennia)

quadrenniums (plural)
quadrennia (plural)

From Late Latin quadrennium, from Latin quadriennium, from quadriennis (“4-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns).

A period of 4 years, particularly (historical) the sets of four years in the ancient Egyptian and Greek calendars.


vesper

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

From Old French vespre, from Latin vesper (“evening star”).

On Sumter’s rampart, that sweet eve, / I heard the vesper bugle play […]

1908, James Ryder Randall, “On the Rampart”, in Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems, Baltimore, Md., New York: John Murphy Company, page 28:


whilom

From Middle English whilom (“(adverb) at one time, formerly, once; once upon a time; at times, sometimes; at a future time; (conjunction) while”) [and other forms], from Old English hwīlum, hwīlan, hwīlon (“at one time, once; sometimes”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwīlum, the dative plural of *hwīlu (“period of time, time, while; period of rest, pause”), from Proto-Germanic *hwīlō (“period of time, time, while; period of rest, pause”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest; peace, rest”).
The Oxford English Dictionary regards adverb sense 2.2 (“for some time that has passed”) as “aberrant”.
Cognates
* Old High German hwīlōn (Middle High German wīlen, wīlent, German weiland (“at one time, formerly”))
* Old Saxon hwīlon (“sometimes”) (Middle Dutch wilen, Middle Low German wilen (“at one time, formerly”), Dutch wijlen (“deceased, late”))

nb...

quilum, whileme, whilen, whilene, whilome, whilon, whilum, whilumm, whylom, whylome, whylon, whylum, (Kent) hwilem, wilem, (Scotland) qhilom, quhilom, quhilum, quhylum, qwhilom, qwhilum, qwhylum, qwylum, (Southwest England) ʒwilene, ʒwuilene, (Early Middle English) hwilan, hwilem, hwilen, hwilon, hwilum, hwylem, hwylen, wilen, wylem, ȝwilene

cog

Lo I the man, vvhoſe Muſe vvhilome did maske, / As time her taught, in lowly Sheapards vveeds, / Am novv enforſt a far unfitter taske, […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 1:

VVith ſuch an invention [a sumptuary law] did Zelevcus vvhilome correct the corrupted maners of the Locrines.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Sumptuarie Lawes, or Lawes for Moderating of Expences”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 145:

In Northern Clime a valorous Knight / Did whilom kill his Bear in fight, / And wound a Fidler: we have both / Of these the objects of our Wroth / And equal Fame and Glory from / Th' Attempt or Victory to come.

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 26:

My vvarbling Lute, the Lute I vvhilom ſtrung / VVhen to King John of Portugal I ſung, / VVas but the Prelude to that glorious Day, / VVhen thou on Silver Thames did'ſt cut thy vvay, / VVith vvell-tim'd Oars before the Royal Barge, / Svvell'd vvith the Pride of thy Celeſtial charge; […]

c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 4:

The Squire himſelf novv ſallied forth, and begun to roar forth the Name of Sophia loudly, and in as hoarſe a Voice, as vvhileom did Hercules that of Hylas: […]

1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the History Goes Backward”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, pages 66–67:

They who whilome, in midnight fight, / Had marvelled at her matchless might, / No less her maiden charms approved, / But looking liked, and liking loved.

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Fifth: To George Ellis, Esq.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 231:

Holding it [the skull of a hare] in the hand the shadow falls into and darkens the cavities once filled by the wistful eyes which whilom glanced down from the summit here upon the sweet clover fields beneath.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Downs—The Entrenchment—Ways of Larks. Hares—A Combat—Happiness of Animals. Ants—A Long Journey.”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 10:

(archaic except literary) At some time in the past; formerly, once upon a time.

This money I do give ye, becauſe of vvhilom / You have bin thought my ſonne, and by myſelfe too, […]

1610–1616 (date written), Iohn [i.e., John] Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1639, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, signature I2, verso:

(rare) Preceded by of or this: for some time that has passed.


whilom

On the same day, two notable Female Prisoners are also put in ward there: Dame Dubarry and Josephine Beauharnais! Dame whilom Countess Dubarry, Unfortunate-female, had returned from London; they snatched her, not only as Ex-harlot of a whilom Majesty, and therefore suspect; but as having 'furnished the Emigrants with money.'

1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Death”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 290:

The play must have appeared during the closing years of the Peloponnesian war, and must have been fresh in men's memory, when, as Plutarch tells us (Life of Lysander, c. 15), the deliberations about the fate of conquered Athens were determined by a Phocian actor singing the opening monody, which moved all to pity by its picture of a whilom princess reduced to miserable poverty.

1879, J[ohn] P[entland] Mahaffy, “His Plots”, in John Richard Green, editor, Euripides (Classical Writers), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, paragraph 43, page 60:

[S]he was expecting to be joined there by no such pale fellow-adventurer as her whilom uncle.

1909, Henry James, “Mora Montravers. Chapter V.”, in The Finer Grain, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published October 1910, →OCLC, page 99:

(archaic except literary) At some time in the past; former, sometime.


whilom

term-label

(archaic except British, dialectal and literary)

Subjects their King, the King his Subjects greets, / VVhilome the Scepter and the Plough-ſtaffe meets.

1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 77:


vicennial

From vicennium + -al or directly from Latin vīcenniālis, from vīcennium (“20-year span”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjective-forming suffix), from vīcennis (“20-year”) + -ium (“-ium”, suffix forming abstract nouns), from vīciēs (“20 times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives). Equivalent to vice- (“twenty”) + -ennial.


carbon-date

en-verb

carbon-date (third-person singular simple present carbon-dates, present participle carbon-dating, simple past and past participle carbon-dated)

carbon-dates (present singular third-person)
carbon-dating (participle present)
carbon-dated (participle past)
carbon-dated (past)
carbon date (alternative)

After carbon-dating the artifact, the archaeologist determined that it was of late bronze age manufacture.

(transitive) To gauge the age of (an organic material) by comparing the ratio of carbon isotopes.


geologic era

(geology, Paleontology) A subdivision of geologic time that divides an eon into smaller timeframes.


postbellum

From Latin post bellum (literally “after the war”).

bor

For most Europeans, a postbellum world had seemed the self-evident future, says Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö.

2023 September 30, Patrick Wintour, quoting Sauli Niinistö, “‘No turning back’: how the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Midway through Donald McCaig’s unexpectedly diverting novel, “Rhett Butler’s People,” a black man about to be lynched in the post-bellum South asks Rhett to please shoot him dead before the mob breaks into the jail and does worse.

2007 November 4, Stephen L. Carter, “Almost a Gentleman”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) Of the period following the American Civil War, especially used in reference to the South.


around-the-clock

The around-the-clock workers tried to finish the project.


in a minute

Clean the kitchen, your grandma's coming in a minute.


time constant

time constants (plural)
time-constant (alternative)

(physics) The time in which a physical system's response to a step-wise change in an external variable reaches approximately 63% of its final (asymptotic) value.

aikavakio

physics: characteristic of step response


megayear

megayears (plural)
as: Myr (abbreviation)

After three hours the machine had not printed its response to the first input pattern; evidently the rate of learning under these conditions is very low (we judge it to be on the order of 10⁻⁶ concepts for megayear).

1984, J. B. Cadwallader-Cohen, W. W. Zysiczk, R. B. Donnelly, “The chaostron: an important advance in learning machines”, in Communications of the ACM, 27(4), p.357:

We know from isotopic measurements, stereochemistry, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, that the production of hydrocarbons in the Earth occurs on timescales ranging from fractions of a megayear to hundreds of megayears, in a temperature regime in the rough range of 0-200°C, and in an evolving environmental "smog" of sedimentary pores containing water laced with varying amounts of ions, molecules, and minerals.

1997, Ian Lerche, Geological Risk and Uncertainty in Oil Exploration, page 231:

As to that time span, all clearly definite forms of life or species seem to take a megayear more or less to come about and be present for a while.

2001, Fred Howard, Taming the Vipers in the Slough, page 400:

A million years, a thousand thousand years.


gigayear

1967, Rankama, Kalervo, Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Megayear and Gigayear: Two Units of Geological Time:

These syntheses gave a fresh geological, as opposed to solely geophysical, view of the up to multi-megayear and near gigayear mechanism responsble for the palimpsests of a general process of change in the upper crust: a process that we may observe, often apparently 'frozen' -- because it is so slow, at different steps in the process, in different places within the upper crust.

1982, A. M. Clarke, “Carboniferous Sedimentary Basins of Northern Europe and the Nature of Emergence around the Margins of the Mesozoic Rifted Sedimentary Basin of the North Sea”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 305(1489), pp207-208:

The illustrative example here provides for a few gigayear spread in ages of tracers of the stellar halo in a spiral (this is obviously sensitive to the chosen turnaround redshift) as found for the Milky Way field stars (Schuster & Nissen 1989) and globular clusters (reviewed by Bolte 1993).

1993, Rosemary F.G. Wyse, “The physical interpretation of morphology”, in J. Michael Shull, Harley A. Thronson, Jr., editors, The Environment and Evolution of Galaxies, page 308:

It's hard to tell the difference between a 5-gigayear, 8-gigayear, and 10-gigayear cluster for such a sparse object as this unless you've got very high-quality photometry.

2002, William Harris of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. (quoted on Astronomy.com)

The fraction could be as high as 100% if the nuclear activity lasts much less than a gigayear.

2007, Linda Siobhan Sparke, John S. Gallagher, III, Galaxies in the Universe, page 343:

A billion years, a thousand thousand thousand years.


top of the hour

en-noun

top of the hour (plural tops of the hours or tops of the hour)

tops of the hours (plural)
tops of the hour (plural)

If not done at the top of the hour, however, the station ID should come at the next possible break in the programme.

2005, Simran Kohli, The Radio Jockey Handbook, page 93:

(idiomatic) The time at (or very close to) the start of the next hour of time.


on the hour

hourly, beginning at the start of each hour.


lagtime

The lag-time in response to feedback that can result from using pen-and-paper questionnaires or oral reports may therefore reduce students’ active participation in feedback on lessons.

2017, Di Zou, James Lambert, “Feedback methods for student voice in the digital age”, in British Journal of Educational Technology, volume 48, number 5, page 1088:


quarter-century

I spent my second quarter-century
Losing what I had learnt at university
And refusing to take in what had happened since […]


a day late and a dollar short

His apology was a day late and a dollar short.

(US, idiomatic, predicative) Too late and too feeble to achieve the desired effect.


working day

It will take five working days to process your application.

Any of those days of a week on which work is done, officially Monday to Friday in many countries (even though many people work on weekends).

business day

day on which work is done in legal and official usage


there's no time like the present

Near-synonyms: he who hesitates is lost, never put off until tomorrow what you can do today, procrastination is the thief of time

Now is an appropriate time to take a particular action.


real time

"It's intelligence in real time, but you have to know where you're looking and what you're after." Government sources told The Washington Post that the program had had little discernible impact on the government's ability to prevent terrorist [attacks].

2009, John C. Conyers, Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 158:

Additional data services, such as album art, artist information and advertising logos, interactive user functions, as well as weather and traffic updates in real time [exist].

2016, Jerry C. Whitaker, The SBE Broadcast Engineering Handbook: A Hands-on Guide to Station Design and Maintenance, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 11:

The time during which an event or process occurs (and during which, without much delay, it is responded to, reacted to, etc).


split-second

split-seconds (plural)
split second (alternative)

From split (adjective) + second (noun), from split second(s) hands: see sense 1.

(chiefly attributive) A stopwatch with two second hands, each of which may be stopped separately to time the intervals of a race by a sportsperson, or to time more than one sportsperson.

It's very dangerous, though, when a man thinks for a split second that he understands death.

1912, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Eye of Death; or, The Murder Charge”, in Manalive, New York, N.Y.: John Lane, →OCLC, part II (The Explanations of Innocent Smith), page 182:

I was in the gutter, sitting my bike, willing them to die, […] or otherwise obliterated because this demanded split-second timing.

1959, William Golding, chapter 4, in Free Fall, Harbinger Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, published 1962, →OCLC, page 82:

It appears [Simon] Cowell has been taking notes from South Korea, as his next talent show Walk The Line, coming later this year, has also been game-ified: it will see singers perform, then have to make the split-second decision of whether to take a cash prize or risk advancing in the competition instead.

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How Talent Shows Became TV’s Most Bizarre Programmes”, in BBC Online, archived from the original on 2023-04-18:

A fraction of a second; hence (figurative, also attributive) a very short time period; an instant, a moment.

fraction of a second; very short time period

一目𥍉仔 /一目𱳅仔 (zh-min-nan) (chi̍t-ba̍k-nih-á, literally “in the twinkling of an eye”)

一絲仔久 /一丝仔久 (chi̍t-si-á-kú, chi̍t-siá-kú, literally “a thread long”)

இமைப்பொழுது (imaippoḻutu, literally “a twinkling of the eye”)


all the time

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-all the time.wav

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

The public does not wish to be outraged in this way all the time.

1889 September 11, Mark Twain, “Last Words of Great Men”, in Buffalo Express:

Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.

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

I couldn't live without your love
Now, I know you′re really mine
I gotta have you all the time

1966, Tony Hatch, Jackie Trent, Petula Clark (vocalist), I Couldn't Live Without Your Love, I Couldn't Live Without Your Love (album)

The study found that there had been as many patent applications for artificial intelligence since 2013 as there were in all the time since the term AI was first used in the 1950s.

2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America, archived from the original on 2019-02-07:

(set phrase, duration) Always; constantly; for the complete duration.


at a time

individually

antonym(s) of “simultaneously at each occurrence”

He manages to abstain from smoking for weeks at a time, but then gives in and starts again.


passage of time

Presented with an opportunity to go off the rails, the show stays small and focuses on the characters and relationships as we know them, acknowledging the passage of time only when it suits the comedy of “Lisa’s Wedding.

2013 October 13, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Lisa’s Wedding” (season six, episode 19; originally aired 3/19/1995)”, in The Onion AV Club:


sands of time

[…] And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time […]

1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life. […]”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 7:

(literary) time considered as a finite commodity that is gradually running out, as the sand in an hourglass


spare time

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


standard time

Time as measured by synchronizing clocks in different geographical locations within a time zone to the same time, rather than using the local meridian, as in local mean time or solar time.

стандартно време

synchronized clock time in each graphical locations

Australian Central Western Standard Time


summer time

When the clocks are put forward at the introduction of summer time, the long-distance night trains automatically become one hour late, and continue to run late for the remainder of their journeys. […] Similarly, when the clocks are put back in the autumn, the night trains become one hour early.

1951 June, “The Why and the Wherefore: Railways and Summer Time”, in Railway Magazine, page 429:

daylight saving time
daylight saving time


time code

time codes (plural)
timecode (alternative)

A DigiSlate can be set to display either SMPTE or internal (real time) time code.

2010, Richard W. Kroon, A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms, page 207:

A numeric code generated at regular intervals by a timing system, often for video synchronization.

inter-range instrumentation group time code


time difference

time difference (plural time differences)

The difference between one measurement of time and another; the length of a time interval.


time interval

A period of time with fixed, well-defined limits.

aikaväli

a period of time with fixed, well-defined limits


time domain

(mathematics, physics) The set of values, representing time, over which a function dependent on time is defined.


time-stamp

en-verb

time-stamp (third-person singular simple present time-stamps, present participle time-stamping, simple past and past participle time-stamped)

time-stamps (present singular third-person)
time-stamping (participle present)
time-stamped (participle past)
time-stamped (past)


over and over

The children loved the slide, and they went on it over and over until it got dark outside.

Repeatedly; again and again; many times.


Kali Yuga

Unadapted borrowing from Sanskrit कलियुग (kaliyuga, “age of darkness”), from कलि (kali, “Kali”) + युग (yuga, “yuga”)

ubor

Kaliyuga (alternative)
Kali-Yuga (alternative)

In Hinduism, the fourth and most evil of four stages of development that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas, traditionally thought to have begun at midnight (00:00) on 18 February, 3102 B.C.E. under the Julian calendar (23 January under the Gregorian calendar), and lasts for 432,000 years.


waste time

en-verb

waste time (third-person singular simple present wastes time, present participle wasting time, simple past and past participle wasted time)

wastes time (present singular third-person)
wasting time (participle present)
wasted time (participle past)
wasted time (past)

I'm gonna stop wastin' my time / Somebody else would have broken both of her arms

1973, “Sad Song”, in Berlin, performed by Lou Reed:

Don't waste your time or time will waste you.

2006, Matt Bellamy, “Knights of Cydonia”, in Black Holes and Revelations, performed by Muse:

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has wasted no time.

2025 February 5, Richard Wilcock, “GBR searches for answers to ticketing simplification”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 26:

To allow time to elapse in an unproductive manner.


monthlong

In early December, as rainwaters had started the monthlong process of flooding mines and washing out rail lines, workers lined up before 1 p.m. at an easy-to-miss storefront depot in Mackay.

2011 December 1, Joel Kirkland, “Australia's Record Rains Squeeze World Coal Supplies as Scientists Study Climate Pattern”, in The New York Times:

Which lasts a month, or approximately so.


weeklong

They felt confident that the weeklong artillery bombardment of the German lines had weakened the enemy and that they would encounter little resistance once the "big push" began.

2022, Lindsey Fitzharris, The Facemaker, page 105:


daylong

The Hang En tour involves a difficult daylong trek over limestone mountain paths and along riverbeds to the remote indigenous village of Ban Doong.

2014 October 31, David W. Lloyd, “Deep in Vietnam, Exploring a Colossal Cave”, in The New York Times:


nightlong

From Middle English *nihtlong, from Old English nihtlang (“lasting through the night, night-long, a night in length”), equivalent to night + -long.

inh

Lasting a night (i.e. the duration of one night); lasting all night.


hourlong

Of or relating to an hourlong period of time.


eyeblink

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

From eye + blink. Cognate with Afrikaans oomblik, Dutch ogenblik, German Augenblick, German Low German Ogenblick.

An act of blinking one's eyelids one time.

(idiomatic) A moment (a very short period of time).


British Summer Time

daylight-saving time
daylight-saving time

(British) A form of daylight-saving time, one hour ahead of UTC, used in the United Kingdom. Abbreviation: BST


peacetime

en-noun

peacetime (usually uncountable, plural peacetimes)

peacetimes (plural)
peace time (alternative)
peace-time (alternative)

When the country was blockaded during the second world war and the nation’s farmers were told to convert scrub and pasture to sown fields, arable land doubled. In peacetime, the patriotic drive for self-sufficiency continued

2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian:

The period of time when a nation or people is at peace, not fighting a war.


breakup

breakups (plural)
break up (alternative)
break-up (alternative)

(Alaska and northern Canada, seasons, time) The time of year during which winter ice covering bodies of water disintegrates; more generally, spring.


learning season

learning season (plural learning seasons)

Any time or occasion suitable or natural for gaining understanding, values, wisdom, knowledge, or skill.


winter break

A period of time off during the winter, especially over the Christmas period.


as of late

In the idiomatic sense, a relatively recent and uncommon blend of as of and of late. See also as of yet.

You seem to be quite busy as of late.


clock paradox

(relativity) The phenomenon in which two observers who start together with identical clocks, follow different timelines, and then rejoin can have different elapsed times on their clocks, especially if one travels at a relativistic speed.


twin paradox

twin paradoxes (plural)
twins paradox (alternative)

From the thought experiment conducted by Albert Einstein, in which one of a pair of twins sets off in a spaceship on a trip at high speed, and due to the effects of relativity, his effective clock ticks slower than the twin who remains at home, not encountering relativistic effects, so that when the spacetraveller twin returns home to compare clocks, the spacetraveller will have experienced less elapsed time than the homebody, thus having aged less than the homebody twin and being younger.


drawn-out

en-adj

drawn-out (comparative more drawn-out, superlative most drawn-out)

more drawn-out (comparative)
most drawn-out (superlative)

Protracted, made to take a longer period of time than necessary.


long-span

long-span (comparative more long-span, superlative most long-span)

more long-span (comparative)
most long-span (superlative)


modernly

en-adv

modernly (comparative more modernly, superlative most modernly)

more modernly (comparative)
most modernly (superlative)

If our painters must clothe their portraits in idealities at all, let us at once return to the old taste in this beautiful branch of the fine arts, – as we have modernly done in our buildings, and partially in our statues […]

1836, Cornelius Webbe, Glances at Life in City and Suburb, page 225:


day and night

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-day and night.wav

All the time; round the clock; unceasingly.


eternal recurrence

The concept dates from ancient times and was popularized by the philosopher Nietzsche (1844-1900).

(cosmology, religion, philosophy) The belief or theory that all the events in cosmic history repeat in an endless cycle.


eternal return

(cosmology, religion, philosophy) Eternal recurrence.


trimonthly

A periodical publication that appears four times per year (every three months).


triennially

Occurring at intervals three years apart.


half-hour

half-hours (plural)
half hour (alternative)
halfhour (alternative)

A period of time equal to thirty minutes, half an hour.

The great clock of the castle sounded the half-hour—he had another half-hour to wait, ere the approach of Count Deckendorff; […]

1807, [Miss Guion], chapter V, in The Three Germans. Mysteries Exemplified in the Life of Holstein of Lutztein. A German Romance. […], volume I, London: […] J[ames] F[letcher] Hughes, […], →OCLC, page 121:

The time of thirty minutes past any particular hour.


time management

The management of time in order to make the most of it.


date of birth

en-noun

date of birth (plural dates of birth or dates of births)

dates of birth (plural)
dates of births (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-date of birth.wav

The date and year on which something or someone was born.

ܣܹܝܩܘܿܡ ܡܵܘܠܵܕ݂ܵܐ

sēqōm māwlāḏā


interbellum

Learned borrowing from Latin inter bellum (literally “between war”).

lbor

My parents met during the interbellum between World War I and World War II.


septenary

From the Latin septēnārius (“consisting of seven each”), from septēnī (“seven each”, “seven at a time”) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary).

der

This idea was based on the doctrine that a man's body changed its character every seven years and that his life was thus made up of ‘septenaries’.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 596:


quinquennium

en-noun

quinquennium (plural quinquenniums or quinquennia)

quinquenniums (plural)
quinquennia (plural)
quinquennie (alternative)

From Latin quīnquennium, from quinquennis (“5-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns).

During the quinquennium from 1991 to 1995, infant mortality increased.


four score and seven years ago

en-adv

four score and seven years ago (not comparable)

fourscore and seven years ago (alternative)
four score seven years ago (alternative)

/ˈfɔː skɔː‿ɹən ˌsɛvən jɪəz əˌɡəʊ/

/ˈfɔɹ skɔɹ ən ˌsɛvən jɪɹz əˌɡoʊ/

En-au-four score and seven years ago.ogg

Literally, “87 years ago” (score sense: “group of 20”) the beginning of the Gettysburg Address made on November 19, 1863, by United States President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The widespread familiarity of Lincoln’s address, the unusual and poetic wording, and its status as the first words of the speech have caused the phrase to enter the public consciousness.

It was established four score and seven years ago, and since that time its activities have been intertwined with the internal development of the Nation itself.

1936 April 16, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Address at the Dedication of the New Department of the Interior Building:

I imagined momentarily that it was four score and seven years ago, that I had just been brought forth from my mother […]

2010 December 23, Phillip Roth, “Prologue”, in The Great American Novel, →ISBN, page 21:

Four score and seven years ago, I began writing an annual letter to be enclosed in my Christmas cards.

2012 February 20, Vicky DeCoster, “The Letter”, in The Wacky World of Womanhood, →ISBN, page 93:

(idiomatic, often humorous) Used (sometimes sarcastically) to indicate that a past event being mentioned is particularly important: a long time ago; many years ago.


quarter of

"It's 2:30 now; let's meet in 15 minutes." "Okay, see you at quarter of."

(dated) Synonym of quarter to; fifteen minutes before a certain hour.


blink of an eye

en-noun

blink of an eye (usually uncountable, plural blinks of an eye)

Just a blink of an eye later, he was gone.

Mother, remember the blink of an eye / When I breathed through your body?

2002, Iron & Wine, “Upward Over the Mountain”, in The Creek Drank the Cradle:

In the blink of an eye it just all slips away

2020, “Ready For More”, in Open up your head, performed by Sea Girls:


post-modern

en-adj

post-modern (comparative more post-modern, superlative most post-modern)

more post-modern (comparative)
most post-modern (superlative)


Dark Ages

the Dark Ages (canonical)
Dark Age (alternative)
dark Ages (alternative)
dark ages (alternative)
darke ages (alternative)

/ˈdɑːˌkeɪd͡ʒɪz/

The phrase appears in writing of the English Reformation by Richard Sibbes (1620) and by George Abbot (1624), the archbishop of Canterbury. Both authors use it to refer to the period of papal supremacy before the Reformation. The earliest citation in Oxford English Dictionary is dated 1687. Use is specific to English therefore not likely to be from Latin.

It is clear that many linguists view connectionism as a revival of the radical empiricist approach that dominated the dark ages in psychology—the behaviourist era.

1992, Steven Davis, Connectionism: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 84:

Yes, DSL is a better, faster and less expensive way to access the Internet. Unfortunately, it's saddled with back-office systems that belong in the Dark Ages and politics that may require regulatory oversight.

2000 March 6, Network World, volume 17, number 10, page 49:

Put yourself back in the dark ages, the time before the Internet took off–say, the 1970s–and ask: What was the environment for creativity then?

2001, Lawrence Lessig, The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connected world, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2013-03-29, page 104:

The Scourge disaster sent angaran civilization into a dark age. Records of their golden era of technological advancement and proliferation through space only survived as oral history, making it difficult to separate truth from legend. Nevertheless, angara believe they had colonized numerous planets across the cluster before the Scourge's devastation left them cut off from each other for centuries.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Angara: Lost Colony Worlds Codex entry:

Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Making that sign / Must've taken all night

2019 June 14, Taylor Swift, Joel Little, “You Need to Calm Down”, in Lover, performed by Taylor Swift:

(figuratively) Any relatively primitive period of time.


nine o'clock

The breakfast buffet opens at nine o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 9:00 a.m.").

(In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the tenth hour of the day; 9:00 a.m. (09:00).

дев'я́та годи́на f (devʺjáta hodýna, literally “ninth hour”)

Supper was served at nine o'clock (= "Supper was served at 9:00 p.m.").

(Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the twenty-second hour of the day; 9:00 p.m. (21:00).


dogwatch

dogwatches (plural)
dog watch (alternative)
dog-watch (alternative)

From dog + watch, perhaps a calque of German Hundewache.

At that time, Captain Thomas G. Peyton, U.S. Navy, who had only served a dog watch as Captain of the Port at Noumea, New Caledonia, reported for this important billet.

1972, George Carroll Dyer, The Amphibians Came to Conquer, page 265:

(nautical) A very brief period of naval service.


cusper

And if you were borm on those tricky days which fall between two signs — like 23 December, or 21 May — then you are called a ‘cusper’, a person born on the cusp of two signs, and said to partake a little bit of both.

1989, Liz Greene, Astrology for Lovers, Red Wheel Weiser, →ISBN:

(astrology) A person born on a day at a junction of star signs.


rotational period

en-noun

rotational period (plural rotational periods)

(of an astronomic object) The time taken to rotate about its axis relative to the background stars.

(of a rotating object on the earth) The time taken to rotate about its axis relative to the earth (assumed fixed).


egg timer

A small version of an hourglass used to time the boiling of an egg.

(by extension) A timer that can be set to sound an alarm after a certain amount of time; a kitchen timer.


fiscal year

(accounting) An accounting period of one year, not necessarily coinciding with the calendar year.

regnskabsår

in accounting, including non-standard years


Christmas is coming

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Christmas is coming.wav

(set phrase, figuratively) Used as a reminder or warning regarding an impending deadline.


turn of the century

turn of the century (plural turns of the centuries or turns of centuries)

turns of the centuries (plural)
turns of centuries (plural)

By the turn of the century he was starting to become well known in literary circles.

The 7th and 8th classes are identical with the Cape engines placed in service at the turn of the century, and are now outclassed for main line work but are used for shunting at the large depots and on one or two of the branch lines.

1940 December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 639:

The beginning or end of a certain century.


wind back the clock

en-verb

wind back the clock (third-person singular simple present winds back the clock, present participle winding back the clock, simple past and past participle wound back the clock)

winds back the clock (present singular third-person)
winding back the clock (participle present)
wound back the clock (participle past)
wound back the clock (past)
wind the clock back (alternative)

But wind the clock back some 60 years, and you would find that away from the South East of England, the North West once had the most extensive and varied selection of electric routes in the country.

2021 February 24, John Crosse, “North West Electrics”, in RAIL, number 925, page 62:

(idiomatic, figurative) To return in time to an earlier period of history.


JST

Jewish Standard Time
Jewish Standard Time

(initialism, humorous) Jewish Standard Time


new year

We hoped that things would be better in the new year.

The next year; the year following the current year, especially the early part of it.


quincentennial

From quin- (“five”) + centennial (“100-year, 100-year anniversary”). Compare the classical Latin form quingenti (“500”).


cooling-off period

en-noun

cooling-off period (plural cooling-off periods)

(law, business) A length of time in which the two sides to a purchase agreement or contract can consider and contemplate it and cancel without a penalty.


chronotaxis

A list or table, sorted in chronological order, of people who held an office. Mostly used for the succession of bishops.


temporal hour

A unit of time defined as ¹⁄₁₂ of a day's daylight or nighttime, varying according to season, latitude, and local weather.


five-second rule

five-second rule (plural five-second rules)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-five-second rule.wav

Accompanied by six graphs, two tables and equations whose terms include “bologna” and “carpet,” it’s a thorough microbiological study of the five-second rule: the idea that if you pick up a dropped piece of food before you can count to five, it’s O.K. to eat it.

2007-05-09, Harold McGee, The New York Times, "The Five-Second Rule Explored, or How Dirty Is That Bologna?", page F3

UNFORTUNATELY, THE FIVE-SECOND RULE IS A MYTH.

2010, Sandy Donovan, Does an Apple a Day Keep the Doctor Away?:

Here are five facts to remember for those who are tempted to apply the five-second rule.

2012, William A. Dando, Food and Famine in the 21st Century, page 201:

Often, people call out the five-second rule because they think that if you get food off the floor quickly enough, there won't be any germs on it.

Any rule that allows or prohibits certain behavior for five seconds after some event, especially:

(informal) The belief that food dropped on the ground is still hygienic to eat provided it is picked up within five seconds of touching the ground.

(basketball) A rule that a closely-guarded player cannot hold the ball for more than five seconds without dribbling, passing, rolling, or shooting the ball.

(basketball) A rule that a player who throws in the ball from out of bounds must get rid of it in less than five seconds.


life-long

One theme of the conference was Organising the Railway as a Business, and Fred Margetts, the chief regional manager of the North Eastern Region and a life-long railwayman, was given the task of taking the lead.

2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 38:


forever and a day

Possibly a folk-etymological alteration of forever and ay.

I'll love you forever and a day.

If this be not that you looke for, I haue no more to ſay, / But bid Bianca farewell for euer and a day.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 225, column 2:

What you gonna do when you just found forever? / Where you gonna get to when you can't get it together? / Forever and a day

2001, Ian Brown, Francis Dunnery, “Forever and a Day”, in Music of the Spheres, performed by Ian Brown:

I went to the front yard, talked for maybe two more hours with Colombina and Rosita, his caretaker, and then we had to leave, but Nicanor still had enough material for forever and a day.

2018 February 2, Alejandro Zambra, “Remembering Nicanor Parra, the Almost Immortal Chilean Poet”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-02:

Honestly, I had acne forever and a day and just struggled to find a routine that addressed my sensitive skin and so I made it!

2023 November 17, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, episode 1878, spoken by Scarlett Johansson:

(idiomatic) For a very long or seemingly endless time.