v. Also 6–7 æternise, 7 -ize. [a. Fr. éternise-r, ad. med.L. æternizāre, f. ætern-us: see ETERNE.
Both the accentuations above noted are frequent in poetry; Shaks. has ete·rnize, which is now the more usual stress.]
1. trans. To make eternal, i.e., everlasting or endless; to give endless nature or duration to.
1580. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. lxix. (1823), 123. There his name who love and prize, Stable stay shall eternize.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 481. His [God’s] holy will … can eternize creations.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 60. That [happiness] fondly lost, This other [immortality] serv’d but to eternize woe.
a. 1711. Ken, Imitat., Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 534. Assur’d to reunite on high And eternize their sacred Tie.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, 14. The most perfect Cherubim in Heaven, to perpetuate and eternise its Happiness, must [etc.].
1839. Bailey, Festus, iv. (1848), 30. The mortal soul Shall be divinised and eternised.
2. To prolong indefinitely (a state or condition); to prolong indefinitely the existence of (a thing).
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 522. By this meanes they take order to eternise their Oliues.
1633. Battle of Lutzen, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 197. A truce which … they wished had been a peace, whereby their repose might be eternised.
1681. Nevile, Plato Rediv., 35. Force or Fraud may alter a Government; but it is Property that must Found and Eternise it.
1716. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. vi. 18. Perpetual quarrels which they take care to eternise, by leaving them to their successors.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Swedenborg, Wks. (Bohn), I. 327. An attempt to eternize the fireside and the nuptial chamber.
1879. Chr. Rossetti, Seek & F., 236. Their first stage is transitory: eternize that first stage, and it would become penal.
b. esp. To make lasting, perpetuate (fame, memory, praise, etc.).
1568. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Princes, IV. II. 104. The memory of you shall remain eternized to your Successors for euer.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurditie, Epist. ¶ iii. b. My tongue is too to base a Tryton to eternise her praise.
1605. Play Stucley, in Sch. Shaks. (1878), 266. Our fame Shall be eterniz’d in the mouths of men.
1628. R. B[eling], Contn. Sidney’s Arcadia, VI. 487. To eternise the famous memorie … of his deceased Mistris Hellen.
1683. Apol. Prot. France, iii. 10. The famous Act of Parliament at Paris has eternized the Memory of this Execrable Attempt.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 211. His Favours eternizing their Renown.
1773. Brydone, Sicily, xix. (1809), 198. Horses … had magnificent monuments erected to eternize their memory.
1866. Felton, Anc. & Mod. Greece, I. xii. 490. An art which eternizes the memory of the human race.
3. To make eternally or perpetually famous; to perpetuate the fame or memory of; to immortalize.
1610. Mirr. Mag., 869. Cadiz … Where great Alcides … Did fixe his pillars t’eternize his name.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng, Ded. (1725), 1. Titus, Trajan, Adrian are Eternized for practising all liberal Sciences.
1746. Smollett, Reproof, 113. Did not his virtues eterniz’d remain.
1818. Bentham, Ch. Eng., 153. What might be … eternized in glass by Mr. Pearson.
1853. Bright, Sp. Peace, 13 Oct. Marble monuments to eternise the men who have thus become great.
1862. R. H. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 107. To see helpless and unbeauteous agony eternised in stone.
1876. Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 148. Monuments … to eternise Lawyers with supple conscience, and glib tongue.
