time immemorial
6
8.0
- noun
- /taɪm ˌɪməˈmɔːriəl/
:
desde tiempos inmemoriales
- Our people, we say, have been there since time immemorial.
People have been doing narcissistic stuff to partners, children, family members since time immemorial.
- People have been doing narcissistic stuff to partners, children, family members since time immemorial.
- So the books and, you know, philosophers and writers and poets since time immemorial have all spoken about, right?
- And that's why it's been been been, you know, since time immemorial.
Examples
-
From time immemorial, man has altered his physical environment, either consciously or unconsciously.
Academic text (1992) -
From time immemorial, laws and courts have been called upon to protect weaker parties against overreaching.
Academic text (2018) -
For the last twenty years, neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial.
Academic text (2004) -
This is an inheritance from time immemorial, the fixed order.
-
And every culture from time immemorial has had a philosophical tradition.
-
Since time immemorial, there have been polities that have stood outside the international community.
Academic text (2001) -
From time immemorial, vampires and witches have been mortal enemies, generation after generation, one millennium to the next.
-
From time immemorial, human society has had to cope with "natural calamities" or "force majeure."
Academic text (1990) -
From time immemorial, his people had worshiped a balance between nature's male deities and the goddess or sacred feminine.
-
The land has belonged to the same family since time immemorial.
Synonyms
1
9.4
A very long time in the past that no one remembers
Antonyms
How Far Back
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'time immemorial' is directly compositional: it denotes a 'time' that is 'immemorial'—i.e., so far in the past that it cannot be remembered or recorded. This relation is cross-linguistically common and follows a straightforward modifier-noun pattern, so a B1 learner who knows 'time' and 'immemorial' would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Time immemorial comes from old law where time is joined with immemorial meaning 'not remembered' to describe a past so far back no one can remember. So when people say time immemorial today, they mean 'a very long time in the past' or 'as far back as anyone knows'.