piuccheperfetto

Forms

piuccheperfetto m (plural piuccheperfetti)^[1] It is also written as three words, più che perfetto, and rarely piucchepperfetto.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian più (“more”) + che (“than”) + perfetto (“perfect”), a calque of the grammarians' term Late Latin plūs quam perfectum (“more than finished”).^{[5][6][2][4][7]} The Latin name is short for a phrase meaning “the more-than-finished past tense”, and is formed from plūs (“more”), quam (“than”) and perfectus (“finished”).^[1]

DELI instead takes it from French plus-que-parfait, recorded in 1550 as ⟨plusque perfet⟩, itself a calque of the Latin.^[8] GRADIT gives the French date only for comparison, and DEI names the Latin term in Theodorus Priscianus.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI and GRADIT date the first record before 1544, in Giulio Camillo Delminio, for the tense expressing an action in the past that came before another past action.^[8][5] Other dictionaries give later dates: Zingarelli 1774, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli the 18th century, DEI the 19th.^{[2][7][10][9]}

Semantic evolution

Bartolomeo Citolini already listed più che perfetto among the tenses of the participle, and Carducci explained the old conditional parlèra as coming from the Latin più che perfetto indicative.^[4]

Italian grammars hesitated over the name of this tense: Corticelli in 1788 called it trapasso imperfetto, Soave in 1819 trapasso prossimo, Puoti in 1843 trapassato, Rodinò in 1860 trapassato primo, Moise in 1889 trapassato indefinito and Brianzi in 1906 piuccheperfetto prossimo.^[8] For Italian the usual name became trapassato prossimo, and piuccheperfetto is now used above all for Latin, Greek and other languages, such as French.^[6][2][3][1]

Timeline

• Before 1544 – Giulio Camillo Delminio uses the term.^[8][5]
• 1550 – French plusque perfet is recorded.^[8]
• 1774 – Zingarelli's date for the word.^[2]
• 1788 – Corticelli calls the tense trapasso imperfetto.^[8]
• 1819 – Soave introduces trapasso prossimo.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (grammar) The pluperfect: in Latin, Greek and some modern languages, the tense that expresses a past action earlier than another past action, corresponding to the Italian trapassato;^{[5][10][6][3]} Latin amaverat is an example.^{[5][10][6][3]}

Related words

• perfetto
• trapassato
• French plus-que-parfait
• Latin plusquamperfectum

Usage notes

In Latin there is a piuccheperfetto of the indicative (amaveram) and of the subjunctive (amavissem).^[3][10] English pluperfect, earlier plusperfect, is recorded from 1530.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 602
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2959
10. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier