Noah Webster
Duration
DURATION, noun
1. Continuance in time; length or extension of existence, indefinitely; as the duration of life; the duration of a partnership; the duration of any given period of time; everlasting duration This holding on or continuance of time is divided by us arbitrarily into certain portions, as minutes, hours and days; or it is measured by a succession of events, as by the diurnal and annual revolutions of the earth, or any other succession; and the interval between two events is called a part of duration This interval may be of any indefinite length, a minute or a century.
2. Power of continuance.