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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Sempitern(e, Sempeterna, -um, n. Also: sempeterne, sempiternoe, sempiternum. [Sempitern(e adj., also with L., quasi-L. and quasi-Ital. endings, as if f. the forms of the L. adj. declension sempiternus, -a, -um. Cf. e.m.E. sempiternum (1633) (the only recorded Eng. form).] ‘A twilled woollen stuff, resembling serge, named, like everlasting and perpetuana, from its supposedly exceptional durability’ (C. R. Beard Dict., s.v. Sempiternum). Also, an example of this. Also attrib.(1) 1621 Edinb. Test. LI 140b.
lij elnes … sempeterne at xl s. the elne 1627 Edinb. Test. LIV 49.
xxiiij ellis sempeterna 1634 Edinb. Test. LVI 357b.
Aucht elnes of sempiternum 1643 Edinb. Test. LX 269b.
Twa peices and ane half of sempiternoe(2) 1621 Edinb. Test. LI 141.
xviij elnes braid sempiternis at tua merkis the elne 1661 Aberd. Council Lett. IV 154.
Braid cloths and stuffs for the use of the natives and the sort of sarges sayes sempiterns whit and fittit for dying 1661 Acts VII 255/2.
Societies & companies for makeing of lining cloath … searges, baises, sayes, cottons, sempeternums, castilians, perpetuanaes and all other wollen stuffs(3) attrib. 1649 Edinb. Test. LXIV 183.
Ten peice … of sempiterne serges estimat all to ij c. lxxxiij lib.