perennial

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin perennis (“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 from per- (“completive or intensifying prefix with the sense of doing something all the way through or entirely”) + annus (“year; season, time”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂et- (“to go”)). The English word is analysable as per- + -ennial. The noun is derived from the adjective. cognates * Middle French pérenne (modern French pérenne (“lasting through the whole year, perennial”)) * Italian perenne (“lasting for a long time”) * Spanish perenne (“eternal; permanent; a perennial plant”)

adj

1. Lasting or remaining active throughout the year, for multiple years, or all the time.
   a perennial stream
   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 basin perennial streams draining into a forearc saline sea. 2012, Chinle Miller, “The Tectonic Forces of the Mesozoic”, in In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition, page 34
2. (figurative)
   1. Continuing without cessation or intermission for several years, or for an undetermined or infinite period; neverending or never failing; perpetual, unceasing.
      His artwork has a perennial beauty.
      Her name was Liberty! Earth lay before her, / And throbbed unconscious fealty and truth; / Morning and night men hastened to adore her, / And from her eyes Peace drew perennial youth. 1882, John Boyle O’Reilly, “The Three Queens”, in In Bohemia, Boston, Mass.: The Pilot Publishing Co.[…], published 1886, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 77
   2. Appearing or recurring again and again; recurrent.
      a perennial candidate in elections
      Change is a perennial theme in politics.
      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, a perennial cause of complaint, and of fear, disgust, and injury to man and horse. 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”, in Horses and Roads: Or How to Keep a Horse Sound on His Legs[…], 3rd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 129
      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 more perennial, than "Whence do I come? Whither shall I go?" Man's origin, man's hereafter, have ever been of intensest interest to man. 1886, Annie Besant, Life, Death, and Immortality, London: Freethought Publishing Company,[…], →OCLC, page 3
      1. (rare) Appearing again each year; annual.
3. (botany) Of a plant: active throughout the year, or having a life cycle of more than two growing seasons.

noun

1. (botany) A plant that is active throughout the year, or has a life cycle of more than two growing seasons.
   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 old perennials which have come through the ash from the old soil. 1917 January, Robert F[iske] Griggs, “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes”, in National Geographic, volume XXXI, number 1, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society[…], →ISSN, →OCLC
2. (by extension)
   1. A thing that lasts forever.
   2. A person or thing (such as a problem) that appears or returns regularly.
      Some of the stars on our list are perennials 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. 21 June 2019, Sterling Whitaker, “Hottest Country Tours to See in Summer 2019”, in Taste of Country, archived from the original on 2021-05-31