Adjective: imperfect
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more imperfect |
| Superlative | most imperfect |
Sample Sentences
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Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect. [c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:]
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Nothing imperfet or deficient left
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Of all that he Created. [1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
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Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; / Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought. [1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:]
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When the prophet Joel was describing the formidable accidents in the day of the Lord's judgment, and the fearful sentence of an angry Judge, he was not able to express it, but stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person. [1653, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon III. [Doomsday Book; or, Christ’s Advent to Judgment.] Part III.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume V, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 35:]
Adjectives inflected like imperfect
priest-ridden,
unreposed,
evadible,
dissentious,
dissentient,
unforesighted,
egocentrical,
unephemeral,
unennobling,
mensuralist,
flocculent,
unseductive,
whoopsy,
whooshy,
surrogate,
Nicodian,
unrepaired,
prismatoidal,
renorenal,
unseducible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *né
3. Proto-Indo-European *n̥-
4. Proto-Italic *n̥-
5. Latin im-
6. Proto-Indo-European *per-der.
7. Proto-Italic *peri-
8. Latin per-
9. Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-
10. Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-
11. Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
12. Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti
13. Proto-Italic *θakjō
14. Proto-Italic *fakjō
15. Latin faciō
16. Latin perficiō
17. Proto-Indo-European *-tus
18. Proto-Italic *-tus
19. Latin -tus
20. Latin perfectus
21. Latin imperfectusder.
22. Old French imparfitder.
23. Middle English imperfit
24. English imperfect
25. From Middle English imperfit, from Old French imparfit (modern French imparfait), from Latin imperfectus. Spelling modified 15c. to conform Latin etymology. See im- + perfect. See: French Adjectives '
imparfait', Latin Adjectives '
imperfectus'.