Meanings
- uncountableChristianityEternal existence as an attribute of God.
In its radical transcendence of all finite states the subject enters into the space of a nunc stans, in the face of which all temporality becomes an unreal appearance.
2005, Robert Spaemann, Happiness and Benevolence2 more examples
But they will teach us that eternity is the standing still of the present time, a nunc-stans, as the schools call it; which neither they nor any else understand, no more than they would a hic-stans for an infinite greatness of place.
1651, Thomas Hobbes, LeviathanIn other words, at the point where the infinite past and the infinite future collide into the present of a nunc stans they spark into existence, as it were, the mental phenomenon of a timeless present which overcomes all ordinary time constructions.
2009, Patricia Bowen-Moore, Hannah Arendt’s Philosophy of Natality
Origin
- Latinnunc“now”
- Englishnunc stans
Borrowed from Latin nunc (“now”) + stāns (“staying, remaining”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
nunc stans. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nunc%20stans
“nunc stans.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nunc%20stans. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nunc stans,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nunc%20stans.
Source: nunc stans on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.