Translation
age, generation, century; the world, worldly life
Examples
.
For ever and ever.
amant.
The men of this age love the world.
transierunt.
Many ages have passed.
.
These things were written in the third century.
.
He left the life of the world.
Saeculum, saeculi, n., second declension. The medieval spelling secula for saecula is everywhere in this corpus and is the same word, not a different one. Classically it is a generation, then the longest span a human life can reach, then a fixed hundred years, which is where "century" comes from; the ludi saeculares were the games that marked one closing.
Christian Latin turns the word against the world. Saeculum becomes worldly life with all its business and distraction, set against the cloister and against eternity, so a priest who is not in a religious order is a secular priest. That is the sense behind English secular, secularism and, at the far end, the liturgical formula in saecula saeculorum.
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saeculum: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "saeculum" (age, generation, century; the world, worldly life): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 13.