preterit

Or pret·er·ite

[pret-er-it]

noun

Grammar.

1. in English, the simple past, or an instance or form of a specific verb in the simple past, such as ate or walked.

2. a verb tense, construction, or form in another language with a meaning similar to that of the simple past in English.

adjective

1. Grammar.,  designating a verb tense expressing a past action or state.

2. Archaic.,  bygone; past.

Other Word Forms

• preteritness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of preterit¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Latin praeteritus “past, gone by,” past participle of praeterīre “to go by,” from praeter- preter- + īre “to go”; as tense name, from Latin (tempus) praeteritum “(time) past”

Example Sentences

The mountaineers who seem to have retained the older forms of the tongue use the itz, not only in the preterit, but in the present and future.

From Project Gutenberg

They form their preterit and frequently their past participle by changing the radical vowel of the present stem.

From Project Gutenberg

Harmony is restored if you make out of the preterit a pluperfect, and read the passage thus:—When Noah was five hundred years old he had begotten Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

From Project Gutenberg

We have also atlaça, to combat or be in agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart from the water, and in the preterit makes atlaz.

From Project Gutenberg

At times, such as when he describes the preterit subjunctive as agueta raba, his divisions fly in the face of derivational history.

From Project Gutenberg