Monday, 31 August 2015

Is there a generic word in English that means "through time"?

I know "temporal" means "to do with time", but I'm looking specifically for a term that means "spanning time" or "over time". Not necessarily all time, as "eternal" would mean, nor do I want to necessarily imply anything about the span of time (e.g. being long or short).



Upon reflection, I guess "temporally" is actually the closest word to use. I was just hoping for a word that meant literally "spans time". I guess the implication of using the word "temporally", because it deals with time, also often implies over the course of time.



However to illustrate the difference, I could use the term "temporal locality" to mean things that are close together in time (a term we use in Computer Science). In this case, "temporal" refers specifically to the concept of time, not the concept of something spanning it (it generally refers to two points in time that are close together, and points in time do not "span" time).



Update: Here's a much better example, though it's specific to programming: let's suppose we deal with the concept of locking an object. We might say that an object is "temporally locked" which means that it is locked with respect to a certain time; but we might also want to say that it is locked through time. I'd like to be able to say the latter with an adverb such as "it is locked _____". Since temporally locked already means something else, we need a distinction.



I honestly don't know if such a word exists, and it's more out of curiosity than anything, but thanks to all the folks who have contributed ideas. :)



Update 2: I've thought of another way to formulate my request. Think of it perhaps as the opposite of a specific point in time. In other words, a word that means "not restricted to a particular point in time". I think perhaps that's a better example than my lock example above.



I like the word chronological for this reason, but chronological also implies the concept of order and specifically progression through time, which isn't really part of this concept. Indefinite also works, to a degree, but as the term doesn't involve time itself, it would have to be temporally indefinite. This is very close, but again, a single word would be awesome.

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