English → Latin
“perpetual” in Latin
perpetuusperpetual, everlasting, continuous, uninterrupted, constant, incessant, unbroken; ablative of time: a duration of time, perennisperennial; continual, everlasting, perpetualcontineōto hold, keep, connect, contain, maintain; to hold or keep together/close; connect, surround; to keep in, enclose, boundcontinuuscontinuous, uninterrupted, successive, lasting; straight, in a row, whole; following one after another, successive, succsempiternuseverlasting, perpetual, eternal, continualaeternusabiding, lasting, permanent, perpetual; endless, eternal; immortalassiduusconstant, regular, perpetual; unremitting, incessantsēdulusdiligent, industrious, zealous, unremitting, solicitous, assiduous, sedulouset cēteraet cetera, and the rest, and so on: used to note that the rest of a list or piece of information continues in a similar siccitāsdryness; drought
The English word perpetual itself goes back to Latin petō, through perpetuālis.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
perpetual
Lasting, perpetuus (uninterrupted): perennis (of constant duration): continens, continuus (following immediately one after another): sempiternus: aeternus [SYN. in ETERNAL]. (The words are found in this connection and order.) perpetuus et aeternus; perpetuus et sempiternus. Perpetual snow, nives quas ne aestas quidem solvit: perpetual rain, assidui imbres; imbrium continuatio: perpetual drought, siccitates (see Herzog, Caes., B.G., 4, 10): perpetual fever, febris continens, or continua, or assidua: perpetual toil, labor assiduus or continuus: perpetual diligence, assiduitas: perpetual sleep, somnus continens.
Assiduous, etc., assiduus: sedulus, etc. SYN. in ASSIDUOUS.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for perpetual?
- The usual Latin words for “perpetual” are perpetuus, perennis, contineō; also continuus, sempiternus, aeternus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.