immemorial
/ɪmɪˈmɔːrɪəl
/adjective
Originating in the distant past; very old: an immemorial custom...
- The more you experience this contrast and this distance, the more you will feel the importance, for us, of an immemorial past and a distant future.
- By the will of God, these days add to your immemorial past, your share of glory and victory.
- The right is ‘to indulge in lawful sports and pastimes’ while avoiding the need to prove an immemorial custom or legal origin which would establish a class A or class B green.
Synonyms
ancient, old, very old, age-old, antediluvian, timeless, dateless, archaic, long-standing, long-lived, time-worn, time-honoured;
ancestral, traditional, atavistic;
of yore, rooted in the past
Derivatives
immemorially
- At times there is an overpowering sense of Eden to Angkor-the virgin light falling through the trees, the houses on stilts above the green paddies, the water buffalo chomping along immemorially beside Tonle Sap lake.
- Only by understanding the nature of traditional architecture, honed immemorially by humankind's relationship to nature, can we begin to make sustainable buildings.
- There are good psychological and symbolic reasons why some parties want the cattle to be prehistoric and immemorially wild, but the scientific studies do not bear out these claims.
Origin
Early 17th century: from medieval Latin immemorialis, from in- 'not' + memorialis 'relating to the memory'.