Are you a perdure? Do you perdure? Are you perdure? What in the world does perdure mean?

A. A university located in West Lafayette, Indiana.
B. A brand of chicken.
C. To last or endure.
D. A common laborer.
E. Lofty, worthy of respect.

Perdure is a tough one, alright. The correct definition of perdure is … to last or endure.

To be frank, I didn’t much like the word when I first encountered it. Why use a fancy, obscure word when a simple, common one will do? In fact, perdure seemed so unnecessary a word I became curious and did a bit of research.

Turns out, there is a profound difference between “endure” and “perdure”, at least in philosophical circles. I discovered that perdurantism is a philosophical theory, which, according to Wikipedia is -

defined as being the claim that objects have distinct Temporal Parts as opposed to endurantism (endurantism is the view that an individual is wholly present at every moment of its existence).

For more on the difference between perdurntism and endurnatism, click here. The theories are quite fascinating, though I can’t say I understand them very well.

I suppose “perdure” is another example of how a single word can lead us anywhere.

Image - Aristotle, from a wall picture in Rome.