Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “perfect” come from?

Perfect comes from Middle English perfit, from Old French parfit, from Latin perfectus, the past participle of perficere meaning "to complete or finish," derived from facere meaning "to do or make."

perfect (English): Fitting its definition precisely; Having all of...

Definitions

  1. Fitting its definition precisely; Having all of...

Ancestry of “perfect”, step by step

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

Words derived from “perfect”

  • perfectly
  • perfectness
  • perfectible
  • perfecter
  • perfectest
  • perfectability
  • unperfect
  • nonperfect
  • perfector
  • perfecteth
  • imperfectability
  • preterperfect
  • unperfectness
  • imperfectible
  • quasiperfect
  • superperfect
  • semiperfect
  • perfectitude
  • hyperperfect
  • perfectamundo
  • self-perfect
  • hemiperfect
  • imperfectibly
  • perfectoid
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s →