imperfecto

Forms

imperfecto (feminine imperfecta, masculine plural imperfectos, feminine plural imperfectas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin imperfectus (“unfinished, incomplete”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed in- (“not”) and perfectus (“finished, perfect”), the past participle of perficiō (“to complete”).^[4][3][5] By surface analysis the Spanish word is perfecto with the negative prefix in-.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese imperfeito, Catalan imperfecte, French imparfait and Italian imperfetto.^[6][7][8][5] Spanish also wrote it ⟨imperfeto⟩, as it wrote ⟨perfeto⟩, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the spelling Cervantes used.^[3][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary, with a second record in Fray Luis de Granada in 1580.^[3][11] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has it in a 15th-century manuscript of Martín Pérez's Diccionario eclesiástico, which it files under 1401.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Both senses of the Latin adjective, “not perfect” and “begun but not finished”, are in the Diccionario de Autoridades, which quotes Fray Luis de Granada on the imperfect goods of this life and Cervantes on a work left unfinished (quedasse imperfecta la obra); it also has the grammatical term, for a tense that is not exactly present, past or future but close to one of them.^[13] A Mexican grammar of 1571 already speaks of the pretérito imperfecto.^[10] Salvá defined that tense in 1846 as one whose past action coexisted with another, and Domínguez listed imperfecto as a noun for it.^[14][15] In 1917 Alemany added botanical and musical uses: an unfertilised seed, a chord lacking some of its notes.^[16] In Cuba the word is used colloquially of a rude or tiresome person.^[17]

Timeline

• 1401–1500 – a manuscript of Martín Pérez's Diccionario eclesiástico has the word.^[12]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary, Corominas's first record.^[3][11]
• 1564 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City: que no sea imperfecta tu penitencia.^[10]
• 1571 – the grammatical term pretérito imperfecto in a Mexican grammar.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the general and the grammatical senses.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin imperfectus.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not perfect, having faults: Su español era imperfecto pero muy claro.^[2][1]
2. Begun but not finished or brought to completion.^[2]
3. (grammar) Imperfective (imperfectivo).^[2][19]
4. (Cuba, colloquial) Of a person: rude, ill-mannered; tiresome.^[17]

Noun

1. (grammar) The imperfect tense, the pretérito imperfecto: «Cantaba» es el imperfecto de «cantar».^[2]

Related words

• perfecto
• imperfección
• imperfectivo
• Latin imperfectus

Usage notes

Grammar uses it in pretérito imperfecto and, in older terminology, futuro imperfecto for the simple future.^[2][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. imperfecto
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 64
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. imperfectus
5. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 775
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. imperfeito
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. imperfecte
8. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard, p. s.v. imparfait
9. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 619
10. ^ a b c d Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. imperfecto
11. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perfecto
12. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. imperfecto
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. imperfecto
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 604
15. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 983
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 930
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. imperfecto
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 586
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. imperfecto
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. imperfecto