perennial
adj.adj. lasting for a very long time or happening again and again. It describes things that never seem to go away or change.
adj. lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring. Often used to describe problems, themes, or plants that return year after year.
Traffic congestion is a perennial problem in this city.
The professor's lecture focused on the perennial themes of love and loss in classical literature.
While some political issues are temporary and tied to specific events, the debate over individual liberty remains a perennial concern for democratic societies.
The adjective is borrowed from Latin perennis (“lasting through the whole year or for several years, perennial; continual, everlasting, perpetual”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Perennis is derived from per- (“completive or intensifying prefix with the sense of doing something all the way through or entirely”) + annus (“year; season, time”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂et- (“to go”)). By surface analysis, per- + -ennial. The noun is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Middle French pérenne (modern French pérenne (“lasting through the whole year, perennial”)) * Italian perenne (“lasting for a long time”) * Spanish perenne (“eternal; permanent; a perennial plant”)
Commonly used both in a literal botanical sense and a figurative sense for recurring abstract concepts.