durable

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2008 is: durable • \DUR-uh-bul\ • adjective : able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration; also : designed to be durable Examples: The couch is covered in a pretty yet durable fabric, and I hope it will last for years. Did you know? Something "durable" lasts a long time, so it's no surprise that the word comes to us, via Anglo-French, from the Latin verb "durare," meaning "to last." Other descendants of "durare" in English include "during," "endure," and "durance" (which now mostly turns up in the phrase "in durance vile," a fancy way of saying "in prison"). "Durable" even has a near synonym in the much rarer "perdurable," which combines "durare" with the prefix "per-" (meaning "throughout") to create a word that can mean "lasting a very long time or indefinitely" or "eternal." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.