Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “imperfect” come from?

Imperfect comes from Middle English imperfit, from Old French imparfit, from Latin imperfectus, from Proto-Italic emperifaktos.

imperfect (English): not perfect; unisexual: having either male or...

Definitions

  1. not perfect; unisexual: having either male or...

Ancestry of “imperfect”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishimperfit—
2Old Frenchimparfit—
3Latinimperfectusunfinished, incomplete; imperfect
4Latinperfectusachieved, executed, carried out, finished,...
5Latinperficiō—
6Latinfaciō—
7Latin-toriumnominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative...
8Latin-tōrius—
9Latin-tor-er
10Proto-Italic-tōr—
11Proto-Indo-European-tōrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...
12Proto-Indo-European-tor-s—

Words derived from “imperfect”

  • imperfectly
  • imperfectness
  • preterimperfect
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s →