Word of the Day

: February 20, 2021

perdure

verb per-DUR

What It Means

: to continue to exist : last

perdure in Context

"The making of a variety show—a nearly extinct genre that perdures as comedy fodder—is also the subject of David Cerda's 'The Rip Nelson Holiday Quarantine Special,' presented by the Chicago company Hell in a Handbag." — Elizabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2020

"For many in Europe, the rise of the politically engaged intellectual … occurred at the end of the 19th century when writers, artists and philosophers stood up for Alfred Dreyfus, a victim of pervasive French anti-Semitism. This tradition perdured in the 20th century with André Malraux who joined the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and the fight between Jean-Paul Sartre …, and Albert Camus over the Algerian war for independence." — Jacques Hyzagi, The Observer, 1 May 2015

Did You Know?

Perdure may be an unfamiliar word for many of our readers, but those who suspect they see hints of its ancestry in the more familiar synonym endure are correct. Perdure was borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-French and traces back to the Latin verb perdurare, meaning "to continue." Perdurare, in turn, was formed by combining the intensifying prefix per- with the verb durare, meaning "to last." Durare is also an ancestor of the English words endure, durable, indurate, and during, among others.