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parfait

Etymology and origin of the French word parfait

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
second half of the 10th century, Vie de saint Léger (perfectus)
Inherited from
Latin perfectus
Ultimate origin
Latin (perficiō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin perfectus
French parfait
French parfaitement

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /paʁ.fɛ/[1]

Forms

parfait (feminine parfaite, masculine plural parfaits, feminine plural parfaites)[1] Old French parfit (about 1050), parfet, parfait from about 1155.[2][3][4] Feminine parfaite.[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin perfectus (“finished, complete, perfect”), the past participle used as an adjective of perficiō (“to finish, complete”), from per- and faciō (“to make”).[5][2][4][6] The Latin word regularly gave Old French parfit; under the influence of parfaire forms of the modern type were added, and won out.[5][7] Wiktionary instead calls it a calque of the Latin word built on par- and fait.[1]

The grammatical noun (1596) is a Frenchification of the Latin grammarians' perfectum after the adjective, and plus-que-parfait (Meigret, 1550) follows the Latin grammarians' term.[8][2] Compare Old Occitan perfeit, Catalan perfet, Spanish perfecto, Portuguese perfeito and Italian perfetto.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Léger (second half of the 10th century) has perfectus fud en carité, “he was perfect in charity”; the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) has parfite amor, “perfect love”.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “accomplished, ideal in its kind or condition”, and by weakening parfite amur “great love” (Marie de France, about 1170), whence Furetière's filer le parfait amour (1690).[5] From the 13th century it means “total, complete” (joie parfite), and in the 15th traistre parfait a thorough traitor, nombre parfait is a term of arithmetic (15th century).[5] Wace (about 1145) uses it of a person without sin, a saint, and li parfès were the Cathar perfects of southern France (1225).[5][4]

Technical uses followed: accord parfait in music (Furetière, 1690), the insecte parfait (1765) and bois parfait (1737).[5][3] As an interjection c'est parfait is found in 1808 and parfait ! in 1831.[5] The noun un parfait, an iced dessert, is recorded in 1869.[5][9]

Timeline

  • 2nd half of the 10th century – Perfectus, Vie de saint Léger.[5]
  • c. 1050 – Parfite amor, Vie de saint Alexis.[5]
  • c. 1155 – The form parfait, Wace.[2]
  • 1225 – Parfait, a Cathar perfect.[5]
  • 1550 – plus-que-parfait.[8]
  • 1596 – The grammatical tense.[8][2]
  • 1690 – Accord parfait.[5]
  • 1808 – C'est parfait.[5]
  • 1869 – An iced dessert.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. perfect, flawless, as good as can be: en parfaite santé, crime parfait, on n'est pas parfait, nobody's perfect.[9][7][1]
  2. Complete, absolute, total.[5][7]
  3. (interjection) Parfait !, c'est parfait: very good, excellent.[5]
  4. (technical) Fully developed: insecte parfait, accord parfait, perfect chord, nombre parfait.[5][3]

Noun

  1. (grammar) The perfect tense.[1][5]
  2. A parfait, an iced dessert.[5][9]
  3. (history) A Cathar perfect.[5]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 237a
  7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  9. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF

Derived terms

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Parfait.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/parfait. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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