Theadjective is borrowed fromLatinperennis(“lasting through the whole year or for several years, perennial; continual, everlasting, perpetual”) +English-al(suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).Perennis is derived fromper-(“completive or intensifyingprefix with the sense of doing something all the way through or entirely”) +annus(“year; season, time”)[1] (possibly ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*h₂et-(“to go”)). Bysurface analysis,per- +-ennial.
[W]hat is most admirable is the vast enclosure, and variety of ground, in ye large garden, containing vineyards, cornefields, meadows, groves (whereof one is ofperennial greens), and walkes of vast lengthes, so accurately kept and cultivated, that nothing can be more agreeable.
1713,W[illiam] Derham, “[A Survey of the Terraqueous Globe.] The Distribution of the Earth and Waters.”, inPhysico-Theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation.[…], London:[…] W[illiam] Innys,[…],→OCLC, book II (Of the Terraqueous Globe It Self, in General), footnote 3,pages49–50:
And there is ſuch a thing asSubterraneous Heat,[…] [a]s is manifeſt from the ſmoking ofperennial Fountains in froſty VVeather, and VVater dravvn out of Pumps and open VVells.
It [the pond] is a clear and deep green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in circumference, and contains about sixty-one and a half acres; aperennial spring in the midst of pine and oak woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the clouds and evaporation.
That desert's age the gorge may prove, / Piercing profound the mountain bare; / Yet hardly churned out in the groove / By aperennial wear and tear / Of floods; nay, dry it shows within; / But twice a year the waters flow, / Nor then in tide, but dribbling thin:[…]
2012, Chinle Miller, “The Tectonic Forces of the Mesozoic”, inIn Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition, page34:
These offshore Sonoman mountains likely formed an orogenic (mountainous) barrier to moisture inland, resulting in a mountain-shadow onshore desert punctuated by regional annual and large basinperennial streams draining into a forearc saline sea.
There, onperennial Adamant deſign'd, / The various Fortunes of your Race you'll find:[…]
1750 December 5 (Gregorian calendar),Samuel Johnson, “No. 72. Saturday, November 24. 1750.”, inThe Rambler, volume III, Edinburgh: [[…] Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair,[…], published1750,→OCLC,page155:
Good humour may be defineda habit of being pleaſed, a conſtant andperennial ſoftneſs of manner, eaſineſs of approach, and ſuavity of diſpoſition;[…]
Theperennial exiſtence of bodies corporate and their fortunes, are things particularly ſuited to a man who has long views; who meditates deſigns that require time in faſhioning; and which propoſe duration when they are accompliſhed.
Has Ireland been governed in a 'wise and loving' manner? A government and guidance of white European men which has issued inperennial hunger of potatoes to the third man extant,—ought to drop a veil over its fact, and walk out of court under conduct of proper officers; saying no word; expecting now of a surety sentence either to change or die.
She has a large gold eye-glass, has Lady Tippins, to survey the proceedings with. If she had one in each eye, it might keep that other drooping lid up, and look more uniform. Butperennial youth is in her artificial flowers, and her list of lovers is full.
1882,John Boyle O’Reilly, “The Three Queens”, inIn Bohemia, Boston, Mass.: The Pilot Publishing Co.[…], published1886,→OCLC, stanza 2,page77:
Her name wasLiberty! Earth lay before her, / And throbbed unconscious fealty and truth; / Morning and night men hastened to adore her, / And from her eyes Peace drewperennial youth.
1881, “Free-lance”[pseudonym; J. T. Denny], “Ludgate Hill only Rises about Four Feet in Every Hundred—Societies—the Bearing Rein only Required on Cripples”, inHorses and Roads: Or How to Keep a Horse Sound on His Legs[…], 3rd edition, London:Longmans, Green, and Co.,→OCLC,page129:
Ludgate Hill is not Moirosi’s Mountain, but, after all, is only a gentle ascent of about half an inch in the foot, over a length of about two hundred yards, up which unshod omnibus horses would trot with a full load in any weather. Yet there it must remain, a chief thoroughfare in the heart of London, aperennial cause of complaint, and of fear, disgust, and injury to man and horse.
Of all the questions which, throughout the centuries, have escaped from the lips of man, there is none which has been asked with such persistence, none which has possessed interest moreperennial, than "Whence do I come? Whither shall I go?" Man's origin, man's hereafter, have ever been of intensest interest to man.
One would have supposed from the appearance of the country at the end of the first season after the eruption that practically all plants except the trees and bushes had been destroyed, and that revegetation must be due to new seedlings started on the ash. Such, however, is not the case. Excavation of the root systems of the new plants shows that they are oldperennials which have come through the ash from the old soil.
2019 June 21, Sterling Whitaker, “Hottest Country Tours to See in Summer 2019”, inTaste of Country[1], archived fromthe original on31 May 2021:
Some of the stars on our list areperennials who fill huge venues year after year after year, but there's also a returning superstar on our list of the hottest summer tours of 2019.
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2022;“perennial,adj. andn.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
perennial plant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia