time immemorial
Before recorded history
Time immemorial refers to a point so far in the past that no one remembers or has record of it.
The phrase typically appears in since time immemorial or from time immemorial, emphasizing that something has existed or been practiced for as long as anyone knows: These traditions have been observed since time immemorial.
In legal contexts, it once meant specifically before 1189, the date English common law set as the limit of legal memory.
Lasting without interruption
- agelessWithout apparent deterioration
- everlastingLasting for all time
- endlessWithout termination or boundary
- unbrokenNot damaged or interrupted
constant · enduring · abiding · perennial · unchanging · infinite · immutable · unending
Existing from the start
- antediluvianExtremely old or obsolete
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- ancestralOf one's forebears
- primevalFrom earliest times
antiquity · paleolithic · neolithic · ancient · archaic · primitive · olden · bygone
perpetual
Lasting without interruption
- agelessWithout apparent deterioration
- everlastingLasting for all time
- endlessWithout termination or boundary
unbroken · constant · enduring · abiding · perennial · unchanging · infinite · immutable · unending · ceaseless
primordial
Existing from the start
- antediluvianExtremely old or obsolete
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- ancestralOf one's forebears
primeval · antiquity · paleolithic · neolithic · ancient · archaic · primitive · olden · bygone · early
legends
Traditional stories or icons
origins · cosmogony · mythology · lore · sagas · epic · fables · dreamtime · mythos · pantheon
- Prehistoric Timesprehistory, Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, ice age
- The Pastpast, ancient, old, formerly, previously
- nostalgianostalgia, nostalgic, memories, remember, reminisce
- antediluvianNoah, ark, great flood, deluge, Methuselah
time immemorialthe here and now
today · contemporary times · lately · just now · the present
time, memory, times, timeless, timely, timed, timing, timetable, untimely