WORD OF THE DAY: EPHEMERAL
adjective | ih-FEM-uh-rul
What It Means
Something described as ephemeral lasts only for a very short time.
// The performance was not recorded, a fact that made its ephemeral nature all the more poignant.
Ephemeral in Context
Did You Know?
In its aquatic immature stages, the mayfly (order Ephemeroptera) has all the time in the world—or not quite: among the approximately 2,500 species of mayflies, some have as much as two years, but a year is more common. But in its adult phase, the typical mayfly hatches, takes wing for the first time, mates, and dies within the span of a few short hours. This briefest of heydays makes the insect a potent symbol of life’s ephemeral nature. When ephemeral (from the Greek word ephēmeros, meaning “lasting a day”) first appeared in print in English in the late 16th century, it was a scientific term applied to short-term fevers, and later, to organisms (such as insects and flowers) with very short life spans. Soon after that, it acquired an extended sense describing anything fleeting and short-lived, as in “ephemeral pleasures.”
Merriam Webster Dictionary
