perfect

Forms

perfect m or n (feminine singular perfectă, masculine plural perfecți, feminine/neuter plural perfecte)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin perfectus (“completed, perfect”) of the early 19th century, with borrowed from German perfekt as a second model in DEX, MDA2 and DLR.^[2][3][4][1] DER and Tiktin give the Latin word alone, and DN compares Italian perfetto and French parfait.^[5][6][7] The Latin word is the past participle of perficiō (“to complete”), from per- and faciō (“to do, make”).^[8][1]

The grammatical noun “perfect tense” comes from Latin perfectum, the noun use of the participle.^[9] German has Perfektum from the 17th century and the shorter noun from the 19th.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Țichindeal's moral fables of 1814, where the new word is explained by the native one: „mai înțelept și mai perfect (desăvîrșit) se face” “he becomes wiser and more perfect (accomplished)”.^[3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

From “having all the qualities required, flawless” the adjective came to mean “complete, absolute”, often as an adverb: perfect sănătos “perfectly healthy”.^[2][8] As an exclamation, Perfect! means “agreed, very good”, and DLR's quotations of it come from 20th-century writers such as Sebastian and Sadoveanu.^[4]

The noun of the grammatical tense is quoted in DLR from 1848.^[4] Scriban objected to comparing the adjective (mai perfect, cel mai perfect), since something perfect cannot be more so.^[8]

Timeline

• 1814 – perfect, glossed desăvîrșit, in Țichindeal's fables.^[3][4]
• 1848 – the noun perfect, of the verb tense.^[4]
• 1939 – Scriban records the exclamation perfect! “very good”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. perfect, flawless: having all the required qualities to the highest degree; desăvârșit.^[2][1]
2. (physics, mathematics) In gaz perfect “ideal gas” and număr perfect, a natural number equal to the sum of its divisors.^[2]
3. Complete, absolute, total.^[2][3]

Adverb

1. perfectly, completely.^[2][1]
2. (as an exclamation) Agreed, very good, excellent.^[2][3]

Noun

1. (grammar) The perfect tense, a past tense of an action done and finished;^[2][1] perfectul compus and perfectul simplu are its compound and simple forms, and mai mult ca perfectul is the pluperfect.^[2][1]

Word family

• perfecționa
• perfectibil
• imperfect
• imperfecțiune
• perfecțiune

Related words

• Latin perfectus

Usage notes

MDA2 and DLR also list a separate, old perfect, a variant of prefect.^[3][4]

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 801
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 343
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. perfect
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. perfect
6. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. perfect
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. perfect
8. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 964
9. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de, p. s.v. perfekt