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imperfectus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word imperfectus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Latin (perficiō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin perfectus
French parfait
French parfaitement
Latin imperfectus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪm.pɛrˈfɛk.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [im.perˈfɛk.tus][1]

Forms

imperfectus (feminine imperfecta, neuter imperfectum, comparative imperfectior); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + perfectus (“complete”),[2][1][3] the past participle of perficiō (“to complete”).[1] The Thesaurus compares Ancient Greek ἀτελής (atelḗs, “incomplete”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Thesaurus and Köbler find it from Cicero on;[3][4] Lewis & Short note that it is not frequent until after the Augustan age.[5]

Semantic evolution

It means not complete in every respect, unfinished or imperfect, of things and abstract ideas.[2][5] In law it is a transaction that is not yet valid, as a sale in the Digest.[2] Of actions it is not completed, as Caesar's envoy who returned from the senate with his business unfinished, and in Celsus food is undigested.[2] Wiktionary also gives a grammatical sense, the imperfect.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “unfinished, imperfect, incomplete”.[6] It remains in use in medieval texts, as in Albertus Magnus.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero.[3][4]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of unfinished business.[2][4]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of undigested food.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unfinished, incomplete, imperfect.[2][5][1]
  2. (law) Not yet valid.[2]
  3. Of actions, not completed; of food, undigested.[2]
  4. (grammar) Imperfect.[1]

Word family

  • imperfectiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Imperfectus.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/imperfectus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·