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Webster 1913 Edition

Preterite

Pret′er-ite

,
Adj.
&
Noun.
Same as
Preterit
.

Definition 2024

preterite

preterite

English

Examples
  • Preterite: I went
  • Present: I go
  • Future: I will go

Alternative forms

Adjective

preterite ‎(not comparable)

  1. (grammar, of a tense) showing an action at a determined moment in the past.
  2. Belonging wholly to the past; passed by.
    • Lowell
      Things and persons as thoroughly preterite as Romulus or Numa.
    • 1988, Clifford Geertz, Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author (page 19)
      Boas, Benedict, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Murdock, Evans-Pritchard, Griaule, Levi-Strauss, to keep the list short, preterite, and variegated, […]

Translations

Noun

preterite ‎(plural preterites)

  1. (grammar) The preterite tense, simple past tense: the grammatical tense that determines the specific initiation or termination of an action in the past.

Related terms

Translations

Etymology

Recorded since 1340, from Old French preterit (13th century), from Latin praeteritum (as in tempus praeteritum ‎(“time past”)), the past participle of praetereō ‎(“I go by, go past”), itself from praeter ‎(“beyond, before, above, more than”)
(comparative of prae ‎(“before”)) + itum (the past participle of eō ‎(“I go”)).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛtəɹət/, /ˈpɹɛtəɹɪt/

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