perpetuity
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Perpetuity \Per`pe*tu"i*ty\, n. [L. perpetuitas: cf. F.
perp['e]tuit['e].]
1. The quality or state of being perpetual; as, the
perpetuity of laws. --Bacon.
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A path to perpetuity of fame. --Byron.
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The perpetuity of a single emotion is insanity. --I.
Taylor.
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2. Something that is perpetual. --South.
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3. Endless time. "And yet we should, for perpetuity, go hence
in debt." --Shak.
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4. (Annuities)
(a) The number of years in which the simple interest of
any sum becomes equal to the principal.
(b) The number of years' purchase to be given for an
annuity to continue forever.
(c) A perpetual annuity.
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5. (Law)
(a) Duration without limitations as to time.
(b) The quality or condition of an estate by which it
becomes inalienable, either perpetually or for a very
long period; also, the estate itself so modified or
perpetuated.
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from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
PERPETUITY, estates. Any limitation tending to take the subject of it out of
commerce for a longer period than a life or lives in being, and twenty-one
years beyond; and in case of a posthumous child, a few months more, allowing
for the term of gestation; Randall on Perpetuities, 48; or it is such a
limitation of property as renders it unalienable beyond the period allowed
by law. Gilbert on Uses, by Sugden, 260, note.
2. Mr. Justice Powell, in Scattergood v. Edge, 12 Mod. 278,
distinguished perpetuities into two sorts, absolute and qualified; meaning
thereby, as it is apprehended, a distinction between a plain, direct and
palpable perpetuity, and the case where an estate is limited on a
contingency, which might happen within a reasonable compass of time, but
where the estate nevertheless, from the nature of the limitation, might be
kept out of commerce longer than was thought agreeable to the policy of the
common law. But this distinction would not now lead to a better
understanding or explanation of the subject; for whether an estate be so
limited that it cannot take effect, until a period too much protracted, or
whether on a contingency which may happen within a moderate compass of time,
it equally falls within the line of perpetuity and the limitation is
therefore void; for it is not sufficient that an estate may vest within the
time allowed, but the rule requires that it must. Randall on Perp. 49. Vide
Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, c. 23; 1 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 406; 2 Ves. Jr. 357; 3
Saund. 388 h. note; Com. Dig. Chancery, 4 G 1; 3 Chan. Cas. 1; 2 Bouv. Inst.
n. 1890.
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
94 Moby Thesaurus words for "perpetuity":
abidingness, age, all-comprehensiveness, all-inclusiveness,
antiquity, boundlessness, ceaselessness, chattering, constancy,
constant flow, continualness, continuance, continuity,
countlessness, defeat of time, defiance of time, distance,
diuturnity, durability, durableness, duration, endlessness,
endurance, eternity, exhaustlessness, extension, extent, forever,
illimitability, immeasurability, immensity, incalculability,
incessancy, incomprehensibility, inexhaustibility, infiniteness,
infinitude, infinity, innumerability, interminability, lastingness,
length, lengthiness, limitlessness, linear measures, long standing,
long time, long-lastingness, long-livedness, longevity, longitude,
longness, maintenance, measure, measurelessness, mileage,
noninterruption, numberlessness, oscillation, overall length,
perdurability, perennation, permanence, persistence, pulsation,
quick fire, rapid fire, rapid recurrence, rapid succession,
rapidity, reach, regularity, repetition, span, stability, staccato,
standing, steadfastness, steadiness, stretch, stuttering, survival,
survivance, sustainment, tattoo, termlessness, timelessness,
unintermission, uninterruption, universality, unmeasurability,
vibration, world without end, yardage
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