Today’s word of the day, thanks to Words Coach, is sempiternal. Samuel Johnson, in his 1755 Dictionary, says that it means “Eternal in futurity; having beginning, but no end” and then “In poetry it is used simply for eternal” (https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=sempiternal). Merriam-Webster defines it as “of never-ending duration : eternal” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sempiternalhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sempiternalhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sempiternal). Then it explains, “Despite their similarities, sempiternal and eternal come from different roots. Sempiternal is derived from the Late Latin sempiternalis and ultimately from semper, Latin for ‘always.’ (You may recognize semper as a key element in the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps: semper fidelis, meaning ‘always faithful.’) Eternal, on the other hand, is derived, by way of Middle French and Middle English, from the Late Latin aeternalis and ultimately from aevum, Latin for ‘age’ or ‘eternity.’ Sempiternal is much less common than eternal, but some writers have found it useful. 19th-century American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, wrote, ‘The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, … to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why…’” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sempiternal).

Dictionary.com shows its pronunciation as / ˌsɛm pɪˈtɜr nl /, with a secondary stress on the first syllable and the primary stress on the third syllable. This website defines it as  everlasting; eternal” but says that it is “Literary” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sempiternal), meaning that one does not find the word sempiternal in everyday speech.

It first appears in English in the “early 15c., from Old French sempiternal ‘eternal, everlasting’ (13c.) or directly from Medieval Latin sempiternalis, from Latin sempiternus ‘everlasting, perpetual, continual,’ from semper ‘always, ever’ (see semper-). Compare aeternus from aevum (for which see eternal). Related: Sempiternally; sempiternity. The earlier Middle English adjective was sempitern (late 14c.) from Old French sempiterne and Latin sempiternus.
Trawthe is immortalle, immutable, and sempiternalle.
[Higden’s ‘Polychronicon,’ 15c. translation]” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sempiternal).

According to On This Day, on this date in 1909, “Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President William Howard Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River” (https://www.onthisday.com/events/august/18). I have never seen the blossoming of the cherry trees in Washington, although my wife and I have been invited by a high school friends of hers, but I have heard how beautiful they are, so this seemed like a topic to explore. I found a webpage from the National Park Service dedicated to the history of the cherry trees in DC. What I found there did not seem to agree with On This Day, sadly.

According to the NPS, “The planting of cherry trees in Washington DC originated in 1912 as a gift of friendship to the People of the United States from the People of Japan” (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/history-of-the-cherry-trees.htm). So how does 1909 fit into the story?

The story begins with a diplomat named Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, who visited Japan in 1885. “Upon returning to Washington from her first visit to Japan, Eliza approached the U.S. Army Superintendent of the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds with a proposal that Japanese cherry trees be planted one day along the reclaimed Potomac waterfront. Her request fell on deaf ears.” She continued to advocate for Japanese cherry trees over the coming decades (ibid.).

In 1906, a Department of Agriculture employee named Dr. David Fairchild decided to run a little experiment to see if cherry trees would grow and thrive in the climate around Washington, DC. He planted some trees on his property in Maryland, and after a year, he determined that the experiment was a success. In 1908, to celebrate Arbor Day, he spoke to elementary school children in DC and handed them saplings to plant at their schools. Ms. Scidmore was in attendance (ibid.).

In 1909, Ms. Scidmore wrote to the new First Lady, Helen Taft, and told her about an idea of raising money to buy cherry trees that would then be donated to the capital. On April 7, 1909,Mrs. Taft replied favorably. The next day, “Dr. Jokichi Takamine, the Japanese chemist who discovered adrenaline and takadiastase, was in Washington with Mr. Midzuno, Japanese consul in New York. When he was told that Washington was to have Japanese cherry trees planted along the Speedway, he asked whether Mrs. Taft would accept a donation of an additional two thousand trees to fill out the area. Mr. Midzuno thought it was a fine idea and suggested that the trees be given in the name of the City of Tokyo. Dr. Takamine asked the Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, to support making a gift of cherry trees to the United States” (ibid.)

At the end of August of 1909, the city of Tokyo announced the donation, and later that year, 2,000 trees were sent. But in January of 1910, when the trees arrived in DC, the Department of Agriculture determined that the trees were infested and diseased, and all the trees were destroyed (ibid.). Letters were sent, regrets expressed, and a desire to try again communicated.

In 1912, 3,020 trees were finally delivered to Washington, and the trees were planted, starting on March 27, 1912. “Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin, about 125 feet south of what is now Independence Avenue, SW. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the first lady presented a bouquet of ‘American Beauty’ roses to Viscountess Chinda.
“Washington DC’s renowned National Cherry Blossom Festival grew from this simple ceremony, witnessed by just a few persons. These two original trees still stand several hundred yards west of the John Paul Jones Memorial, located at the terminus of 17th Street, SW. Situated near the bases of the trees is a large bronze plaque which commemorates the occasion” (ibid.).

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival is organized by a 501c(3) called, oddly enough, the National Cherry Blossom Festival (https://nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/about-us/). The next festival will be March 20 to April 12, 2026. Maybe I’ll go next year. After all, while the beauty of the cherry blossoms may be sempiternal, I’m not.

Today’s image is, of course, of Cherry Blossom trees with the Washington Monument in the background (https://www.backyardboss.net/national-cherry-blossom-festival/).