Forms: 4 eternite, 4–5 -yte(e, 6 -itie, 6–7 æternitie, -y, 6– eternity. [ME. eternite, a. Fr. eternité, ad. L. æternitāt-em, f. æternus: see ETERNE. Cf. Pr. eternitat, Sp. eternidad, It. eternità.]
1. The quality, condition or fact of being eternal (see the adj.); eternalness; eternal existence.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., V. vi. 171. God is eterne … lat vs considere þan what es eternite.
14[?]. Inholders, in York Plays, 515. Euer withoutyn ende With the to reyne in thyne eternyte.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, Introd. (Roxb.), 8. To magnyfye God in hys blysful eternyte.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, To Rdr. b. Giuing them knowledge of the eternitie, and holy trinitie in vnitie.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. iv. 25. He wants nothing of a god but Eternity.
1653. Walton, Angler, i. 15. God injoyes himself only by Contemplation of his own Goodness, Eternity, Infiniteness and Power, and the like.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 246. There should always have been a pre-existing Matter, to establish his Opinion concerning Eternity.
1831. Brewster, Newton (1855), II. xvii. 125. An argument … to prove the eternity of the world.
b. hyperbolically. Perpetual or indefinite continuance; esp. ‘immortality’ of fame.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 476. Thus maketh thai of thaire fertilitee In helping nature a feire eternytee.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 208. A desire he had … of æternity and perpetuall fame.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, Orat. in praise of travel, C 1. Hercules … purchased himselfe eternity of name.
1611. Tourneur, Ath. Trag., I. i. B 3. Here are my Sonnes.——— There’s my eternitie. My life in them; And their succession shall for euer liue.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 28 b. The Vine exceeds even the Eternity of Time itself.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., xi. 277. That eternity is brief which hangs upon the sentiments of any multitude!
c. as a title: cf. ‘Your Majesty, Grace,’ etc.
1791. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1834), I. 264. Their [Eastern Emperors’] subjects address them by the titles of ‘Your Perpetuity, your Eternity.’
d. The eternities: (in vaguely concrete sense) things eternal; the eternal truths or realities. Frequent in Carlyle, and often cited (sometimes derisively) as characteristic of his style.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., Wks. 1858, IX. 253. Truly, if a man cannot get some glimpse into the Eternities, looking through this portal,—through what other need he try it?
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. 165. We begin with introspection and the eternities, and end in blood and iron.
2. Infinite time. The total eternity, which has neither beginning nor end, may be regarded as divided by any moment into two eternities: the past eternity (in scholastic language æternitas a parte ante), and the future eternity (æternitas a parte post). Hence the applications of the word in this sense may be classed as follows:
a. Absolute eternity, having neither beginning nor end.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, i. 6. The eternitie hath not any thing either afore or after it.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 148. Those thoughts that wander through Eternity.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xxiv. (1819), 396. Eternity is a negative idea, clothed with a positive name.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, III. 132. Infinite time is called eternity.
b. The two ‘eternities.’
1656. Cowley, Pindar Odes, The Muse, Notes 25. There are two sorts of Eternity; from the Present backwards to Eternity, and from the Present forwards.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 119. The Ancient Atheists … did at once deny both Eternities to the World: Past and Future.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxii. 62. The soul awakes, a trembling stranger, between two dim eternities,—the eternal past, the eternal future.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., ii. 63. The introduction of the first man into the world … was a dividing line between the eternities.
c. The past eternity.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvi. 147–8. Naturall are those which have been Lawes from all Eternity.
1812. T. Cogan, Theol. Disquisitions, I. i. 16 (R.). A first Cause; who, being uncaused, must exist from eternity.
d. The future eternity; time without end.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. vii. 58. Þou wilt maken comparisoun to þe endeles space of eternite.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 556. Beyond [time] is all abyss, Eternitie, whose end no eye can reach.
1713. Addison, Cato, V. i. Eternity, thou pleasing, dreadful thought … Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
1801. Southey, Thalaba, IX. xiv. They, with their Leader, through eternity, Must howl in central fires.
1827. Pollok, Course of T., VI. Slowly numbers o’er The mighty cycles of eternity.
3. Hyperbolical uses of 2: A space of time felt as ‘endless’; a term indefinitely remote.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 239. Those Grey Kentish Bricks … will last to Eternity.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., 89. With such absolute firmness, as if it had been design’d for Eternity.
1813. Byron, Giaour, 272. Tho’ in Time’s record nearly nought, It was Eternity to thought.
1856. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, ix. (1857), 354. A few more worlds … to which the destroying flood does not reach, save once or twice in an eternity or so.
4. In expressed or implied contrast with time.
a. In metaphysical sense (cf. ETERNAL 1 b): Timelessness; existence with reference to which the relation of succession has no application.
1662. Hobbes, Consid. (1680), 50. Eternity is a permanent Now.
1853. Maurice, Theol. Essays (ed. 2), 450. Eternity, in relation to God, has nothing to do with time or duration.
b. Opposed to ‘time’ in its restricted sense of duration measured by the succession of physical phenomena. Hence, the condition into which the soul enters at death; the future life. Also, eternal welfare.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 73. All that liues must dye, Passing through Nature to Eternity.
a. 1650. Crashaw, Death Herrys. Weak time shall be pour’d out Into eternity.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. xciv. Most grave … Citizens, are put to it by a promissory Oath to stake their Eternities, and in effect to invocate God.
1785. Gentl. Mag., Aug., 658/2. Just as they were going to be launched into eternity.
5. nonce-uses. Viewed imaginatively as an agent or a person.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XLIV. ix. I [Time] am the lodestarre to dame Eternitie.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. lxxi. It comes like an eternity, As if to sweep down all things in its track.
6. In plural (cf. 1 d, 2 b): Eternity viewed as consisting of ‘ages.’
1382. Wyclif, Pref. Ep. Jerome, iv. 64. Thoo that techen many men to rightwisnes [shulen shyne] as sterres into perpetuel eternytees [1388 euerlastyngnessis].
1609. Bible (Douay), Dan. xii. 3. They that instruct many to justice [shal shine] as starres unto perpetual eternities.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, V. 566. Like a clock Which strikes the hours of the eternities.
1858. Sears, Athan., III. i. 256. To unfold through the ages, yea, through the eternities.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., I. 247. The throne of heaven is to them a lonely one. The solitude of the eternities weighs upon their imaginations.
