Sempiternal comes from Late Latin 'sempiternalis', from Latin 'sempiternus' ('everlasting'), from 'semper' ('always') + 'aeternus' ('eternal'). The historical chain includes Latin sempiternus and Latin semper. The quoted older senses, "sempiternalis", "sempiternus", "everlasting", "semper", and "always", supply the semantic anchors for sempiternal. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word sempiternal carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "everlasting; eternal and without end". English derivatives include sempiternally and sempiternity; related English forms include eternal and eternity. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.