ad infinitum

English

WOTD – 14 March 2016

The infinity symbol

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ad infinitum (“to infinity”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌæd ɪnfɪˈnaɪtəm/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪtəm
• Hyphenation: ad in‧fi‧ni‧tum

Adverb

ad infinitum (not comparable)

1. Endlessly; for ever; neverendingly.

Translations

endlessly

• Bulgarian: до безкра́йност (bg) (do bezkrájnost), безкра́йно (bg) (bezkrájno)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無限制／无限制 (zh) (wúxiànzhì), 无限制 (zh) (wú xiànzhì), 無休止地／无休止地, 无休止地 (wú xiūzhǐ de), 不休 (zh) (bùxiū), 不斷地／不断地 (zh), 不断地 (zh) (bùduàn de), 不已 (zh) (bùyǐ)

• Czech: do nekonečna
• Dutch: in oneindigheid, voor altijd, in oneindigheid (nl), voor altijd
• Finnish: ikuisesti (fi), loputtomasti, loputtomiin
• French: à l’infini (fr)
• German: endlos (de), ad infinitum (de)
• Greek: επ' άπειρον (el) (ep' ápeiron)
• Hungarian: végtelenségig, vég nélkül
• Japanese: 無限に (ja) (むげんに, mugen ni), 際限なく (さいげんなく, saigen naku)
• Korean: 영구히 (yeong-guhi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: ad īnfīnītum
• Norwegian: i all uendelighet, uten slutt
• Polish: nieskończenie (pl), do nieskończoności
• Portuguese: ad infinitum (pt), infinitamente (pt)
• Russian: бесконе́чно (ru) (beskonéčno), до бесконе́чности (ru) (do beskonéčnosti)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бесконачно, инфинитивно, бескрајност, до бескрајности, безгранично, неодређено

  Roman: beskonačno, infinitivno, beskrajno, do beskrajnosti, bezgranično, neodređeno

• Spanish: al infinito, indefinidamente, sinfín (es)
• Swedish: i all oändlighet, utan slut
• Tagalog: walang hanggan, walang hangganan
• Vietnamese: vô cùng (vi)

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Latin

Alternative forms

• in īnfīnītō, in īnfīnītum

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ad in.fiːˈniː.tum/, [äd̪ ĩːfiːˈniːt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ad in.fiˈni.tum/, [äd̪ iɱfiˈniːt̪um]

Adverb

ad īnfīnītum (not comparable)

1. to or till infinity, to an unlimited extent, without restriction, everywhere, at pleasure

Descendants

• English: ad infinitum
• Portuguese: ad infinitum

References

• “in-fīnītus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• infīnītus ¶4 in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “814/3”
• “infīnītus ¶2” on page 900/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

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Portuguese

Adverb

1. ad infinitum; endlessly

Synonyms

• infinitamente