preterimˈperfect, a. (n.) Gram. Now rare.
[ad. L. præteritum imperfectum ‘uncompleted past’, with contraction: see preter, preterite, and imperfect.]
Expressing a past action which is not stated as completed but as going on: applied to one of the tenses of the verb in the Indo-European languages, as L. currēbat, Eng. he was running; = imperfect 5. Also absol. as n.
| 1530 Palsgr. 84 The preter imperfit tens as je parloye I dyd speke. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict. C j, The tences are fiue, the present tence, signifying the time that now is:..the preterimperfectence, the time not perfectly past. 1648 Gage West Ind. 215 There is no preterimperfect tense, nor preterpluperfect tense; but the preterperfect tense standeth for them. 1799 Monthly Rev. XXVIII. 411 The Verb must be..in the Preterimperfect Tense, when in English we use the Preterpluperfect. |