different between ancient vs lasting

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?n.(t)??nt/

Etymology 1

From Middle English auncyen, borrowed from Old French ancien (“old”), from Vulgar Latin root *anteanus, from Latin ante (“before”). Compare antique.

Alternative forms

• anchient, aunchient, auncient, auntient, awncient, awntient (obsolete)
• antient (obsolete outside freemasonry)

Adjective

ancient (comparative ancienter or more ancient, superlative ancientest or most ancient)

1. Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.
2. Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.
3. (historical) Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.
4. (obsolete) Experienced; versed.
   • 1550, Thomas Cranmer, A Defence of the True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ; with a Confutation of sundry Errors concerning the same, grounded and stablished upon God's Holy Word, and approved by the consent of the most ancient Doc. tors of the Church

     approved by the consent of the moste ancient doctors of the Churche [part of the book title]

5. (obsolete) Former; sometime.

Synonyms

• (very old): aged, eldern, hoary; see also Thesaurus:old

Antonyms

• modern

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

ancient (plural ancients)

1. A person who is very old.
2. A person who lived in ancient times.
3. (Britain, law) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
4. (obsolete) A senior; an elder; a predecessor.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Junius and Andronicus […] in Christianity […] were his ancients.

Synonyms

• (person who is very old): geriatric, oldster, senior citizen; see also Thesaurus:old person
• (person who lived in ancient times): antique
• (predecessor): antecessor, forerunner; see also Thesaurus:predecessor

Etymology 2

Corruption of ensign.

Noun

ancient (plural ancients)

1. (heraldry, archaic) A flag, banner, standard or ensign.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests..

2. (obsolete, rare) the bearer of a flag; ensign

References

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at [2]
• ancient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ancient in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ancient at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• cantine, catenin, enactin

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?læst??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l??st??/
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): /?le?st??/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /?last??/
• Rhymes: -??st??, -æst??
• Hyphenation: last?ing

Adjective

lasting (comparative more lasting, superlative most lasting)

1. Persisting for an extended period of time.

   Synonyms: abiding, durable; see also Thesaurus:lasting

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Canto 5, p. 249,^[1]

     […] hasty wroth, and heedlesse hazardry

     Doe breede repentaunce late, and lasting infamy.

   • 1706, Susanna Centlivre, Love at a Venture, London: John Chantry, Act V, p. 63,^[2]

     Look ye, Marriage is a lasting thing—if it were for six Months only, I might venture upon thee—but for all days of my Life—mercy upon me […]

   • 1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 11,^[3]

     I knew that nought was lasting, but now even

     Change grows too changeable, without being new:

   • 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, 1944, Chapter 34, p. 311,^[4]

     Then his son bought a carven coffin hewn from a great log of fragrant wood which is used to bury the dead in and for nothing else because that wood is as lasting as iron, and more lasting than human bones, and Wang Lung was comforted.
2. (obsolete) Persisting forever.

   Synonyms: eternal, everlasting; see also Thesaurus:eternal

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act 5, Scene 7,^[6]

     I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,

     Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,

     And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings

     His soul and body to their lasting rest.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Nath. Ponder, p. 24,^[7]

     Things that are first must give place, but things that are last, are lasting.

Derived terms

• lastingly
• lastingness

Translations

Verb

lasting

1. present participle of last

Noun

lasting (plural lastings)

1. (obsolete) The action or state of persisting; the time during which something or someone persists.

   Synonyms: continuance, duration, endurance

   • 1598, I. D. (possibly John Dee) (translator), Aristotles Politiques, or Discourses of Gouernment, London: Adam Islip, Chapter 12, p. 334,^[8]

     But all things that haue beginning, must come to an end, and whatsoeuer groweth, must likewise deminish, being subiect to corruption and change, according to the time appointed vnto it by the course of Nature, as is seene by experience in plants, and in wights, which haue their ages and lastings certaine and determined.

   • 1651, John Donne, Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, London: Richard Marriot, dedicatory epistle,^[9]

     […] it may be some kinde of Prophecy, of the continuance, and lasting of these Letters, that having been scattered, more then Sibyls leaves, I cannot say into parts, but corners of the World, they have recollected and united themselves […]

   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Thomas Basset, Book 2, Chapter 10, § 4, p. 65,^[10]

     But concerning the several degrees of lasting, wherewith Ideas are imprinted on the Memory, we may observe […]

2. A durable woollen material formerly used for women's shoes.

   Synonym: everlasting

3. The act or process of shaping footwear on a last.

Anagrams

• Gatlins, salting, slating, staling

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From laste +? -ing

Noun

lasting f or m (definite singular lastinga or lastingen, indefinite plural lastinger, definite plural lastingene)

1. loading (av / of)

Antonyms

• lossing

References

• “laste_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From laste +? -ing

Noun

lasting f (definite singular lastinga, indefinite plural lastingar, definite plural lastingane)

1. loading (av / of)

Antonyms

• lossing

References

• “lasting” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.