perennial debate
- noun
- /pəˈrɛn.i.əl dɪˈbeɪt/
:
debate perenne
- One answer to the perennial debate on art's autonomy is the possibility that it can be produced independently of art institutions, whether state or private.
Examples
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It's, you know, this kind of perennial debate about whether people are at our core kind or cruel, compassionate or callous, good or bad.
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One significant example of a perennial debate is the ongoing discussion about healthcare reform in the United States.
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The core nature of ethnic conflict has profound implications for the perennial debate about the size of the U.S. defense budget.
Academic text (1999) -
The first of these implications concerns the perennial debate over how far constitutional protections for private property should shield owners from the effects of environmental regulation.
Academic text (2004) -
There is a perennial debate in the United States over the desirability and feasibility of imposing constitutional limits on the activities of the public sector, particularly at the national level.
Academic text (1992) -
I don't mean to dump on President Obama; it's just that schools are definitely where the rubber hits the road in America's perennial debate over individual rights vs. collective responsibilities.
Blog text (27) -
The confluence of these and other events resurrects a perennial debate: with two shuttle failures out of 112 missions and the astronomical expense of the manned space program, can sending people into space be justified, or should robots do the job alone?
Academic text (2004) -
The perennial debate over climate change impacts our policies and future decisions.
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There is a perennial debate among scholars about the influence of technology on education.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a discussion that recurs or lasts a long time' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'perennial' (lasting/recurring) with 'debate' (a discussion). This straightforward adjective + noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Perennial debate comes from the image of a perennial plant that returns every year, so a debate that keeps coming back again and again. That's why it means 'a discussion that continues for a long time and keeps recurring'.