Adjacent Words

Immemorial definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IMMEMO'RIAL, a. [L. in and memor, memoria.]
Beyond memory; an epithet given to time or duration, etc., whose beginning is not remembered, or cannot be traced and ascertained; as when it is said a man has possessed an estate in fee from time immemorial, or time out of mind. Such possession constitutes prescription, or prescriptive right. So we speak of immemorial use, custom or practice. In England, a thing is said to be immemorial, when it commenced before the reign of Edward II.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: long past; beyond the limits of memory or tradition or recorded history; "time immemorial"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: probably from French immémorial, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin immemorialis lacking memory, from Latin in- + memorialis memorial Date: 1602 extending or existing since beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition <existing from time immemorial> • immemorially adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 ancient beyond memory or record. 2 very old. Derivatives: immemorially adv. Etymology: med.L immemorialis (as IN-(1), MEMORIAL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Immemorial Im`me*mo"ri*al, a. [Pref. im- not + memorial: cf. F. imm['e]morial.] Extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition; indefinitely ancient; as, existing from time immemorial. ``Immemorial elms.'' --Tennyson. ``Immemorial usage or custom.'' --Sir M. Hale. Time immemorial (Eng. Law.), a time antedating (legal) history, and beyond ``legal memory'' so called; formerly an indefinite time, but in 1276 this time was fixed by statute as the begining of the reign of Richard I. (1189). Proof of unbroken possession or use of any right since that date made it unnecessary to establish the original grant. In 1832 the plan of dating legal memory from a fixed time was abandoned and the principle substituted that rights which had been enjoyed for full twenty years (or as against the crown thirty years) should not be liable to impeachment merely by proving that they had not been enjoyed before.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that something has been happening since time immemorial or from time immemorial, you are emphasizing that it has been happening for many centuries. (LITERARY) It has remained virtually unchanged since time immemorial... PHRASE [emphasis]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Beyond memory, that cannot be remembered, olden, ancient, hoary, reaching back beyond tradition.

Moby Thesaurus

acknowledged, admitted, age-old, ageless, ancient, antique, auld, ceaseless, coeternal, constant, continual, continuous, conventional, customary, dateless, early, elderly, endless, erstwhile, established, eternal, eterne, ever-being, ever-durable, ever-during, everlasting, everliving, fixed, folk, fore, former, hallowed, handed down, heroic, hoary, incessant, indestructible, infinite, interminable, inveterate, late, legendary, long-established, long-standing, mythological, never-ceasing, never-ending, nonstop, nonterminating, nonterminous, of long standing, of old, of the folk, of yore, olamic, old, old as Methuselah, old as history, old as time, old-time, olden, once, onetime, oral, past, perdurable, permanent, perpetual, prehistoric, prescriptive, previous, primeval, primitive, prior, quondam, received, recent, recognized, rooted, sempiternal, sometime, steady, then, time-honored, timeless, traditional, tried and true, true-blue, unceasing, understood, unending, unintermitting, uninterrupted, unremitting, unwritten, venerable, without end, worshipful