From: tgpedersen
Message: 61769
Date: 2008-11-20
>Dutch eeuw "century" (gouden eeuw "17th century"), eeuwig "eternal".
> Why do you reject the evidence of Latin 'aevum' which could mean both
> "lifetime" and "eternity"? In English people say 'forever' in such
> cases as "You'll be trying forever to get that promotion" or "I want
> to be with you forever", when what is really or in practice meant is
> "for the rest of your/my life, for your/my lifetime", even though
> 'forever' can also refer to eternity, infinity of time. The absolute
> longest period of time any human being can experience is his or her
> own lifetime, which is precisely what Latin 'aevum' means,
> principally. The meaning 'eternity' is fundamentally just an
> exaggeration of the idea of 'a whole lifetime', since again of course
> no one can experience eternity, only his own lifetime.