immemorial

See also: immémorial

English

Etymology

From French immémorial. By surface analysis, im- +‎ memorial.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɪ.məˈmɔːɹi.əl/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔːɹɪəl
  • Rhymes: -ɔːɹiəl

Adjective

immemorial (not comparable)

  1. (sometimes postpositive) That is beyond memory; ancient.
    The rocks had stood overlooking the valley since time immemorial.
    • 1870, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XIV, in Lothair. […], volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 148:
      We will ride this morning to what we call the grove of Daphne. It is a real laurel grove. Some of the trees must be immemorial, and deserve to have been sacred, if once they were not so.
    • 1868, James Redfoord Bulwer, editor, The Law Reports. Court of Common Pleas., volume 3:
      ...the fact of the immemorial taking of the toll, though it would be rightful in its origin if the spot was in a port, and wrongful if it was not in a port, did not of itself afford sufficient ground for inferring that the spot was an antient port, or that such special services were rendered, either by express stipulation in some lost grant, or by immemorial usage, as would support such a grant or custom.
    • 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:
      Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing.
    • 2012, Theodore Dalrymple, The Wilder Shores of Marx: Journeys in a Vanishing World:
      Were it not that the fields are vast in extent, those proclaiming themselves part of State Farm’s, the scene might be immemorial.

Derived terms

Translations

Catalan

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Central) [im.mə.mu.ɾiˈal]
  • IPA(key): (Balearic) [im.mə.mo.ɾiˈal]
  • IPA(key): (Valencia) [im.me.mo.ɾiˈal]

Adjective

immemorial m or f (masculine and feminine plural immemorials)

  1. immemorial

Further reading

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