pluperfect

[ploo-pur-fikt]

adjective

Grammar.

perfect with respect to a point of reference in past time, as had done in He had done it when I came.
designating a tense or other verb formation or construction with such meaning, as Latin portāveram “I had carried.”

more than perfect: He spoke the language with pluperfect precision.

noun Grammar.

the pluperfect tense, or other verb formation or construction with such meaning.
a form in the pluperfect.

Origin of pluperfect

1520–30; < Latin plū(s quam) perfectum (more than) perfect, translation of Greek hypersyntelikós

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pluperfect

Historical Examples of pluperfect

Among rats the chieftain is, of necessity, pluperfect master of defence.
"Wee Tim'rous Beasties"
Douglas English
The rest as the pluperfect of gwîl, or of menny, to will, with the infinitive.
A Handbook of the Cornish Language
Henry Jenner
So it was in this pluperfect esteem that Amory by and by came to bask, with Cosimo as her showman.
Gray youth
Oliver Onions
The pluperfect (or past perfect) subjunctive refers to past time.
An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises
George Lyman Kittredge
And where in the pluperfect hell do I dig up a precedent on that one?
The Trial of Callista Blake
Edgar Pangborn

British Dictionary definitions for pluperfect

pluperfect

adjective, noun

grammar another term for past perfect

Word Origin for pluperfect

C16: from the Latin phrase plūs quam perfectum more than perfect

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pluperfect

adj.

1520s, shortened from Latin (tempus praeteritum) plus (quam) perfectum "(past tense) more (than) perfect." Translates Greek khronos hypersyntelikos. See plus and perfect.