Dictionary

centuries-long en · ADJ

Etymology

From centuries + -long.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Lasting for centuries.
   • No city in the world has a more varied history and interest, and in none can better be traced the centuries-long line of steady progress from barbarism to civilisation. 1942, Harry Parker, Britain Afloat and Ashore: Pictures and Engravings of Our National Life and Achievements. […] (publication number twenty-one), London: The Print Collectors’ Club, […], pages 20–21:
   • For he had not only handed in his resignation as Chief of Staff; he had gone a step further. He had left the Army, given up his title of general. He had done something that had scarcely ever happened during the centuries-long history of the Prussian Army. 1942, Curt Ries, “The Betrayal of a Caste”, in The Self-Betrayed: Glory and Doom of the German Generals, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 213:
   • In his great survey of the material, Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck concluded that “there is probably no comparable form that enjoys the same structural consistency and provides more effectively valid a mode of signification, in terms of its centuries-long use in the most various cultures and language groups, at all social levels of the Catholic world, and at all conceivable aesthetic levels.” 1989, David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response, Chicago, Ill.; London: The University of Chicago Press, published 1991, →ISBN, page 153:

Forms

Coordinates

centurylong

Synonyms

multicentury

Translations (1)

nl eeuwenlang (lasting centuries)