preterite

British  

/ ˈprɛtərɪt /

noun

1. a tense of verbs used to relate past action, formed in English by inflection of the verb, as jumped, swam

2. a verb in this tense

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adjective

1. denoting this tense

Etymology

Origin of preterite

C14: from Late Latin praeteritum ( tempus ) past (time, tense), from Latin praeterīre to go by, from _preter- + īre to go

Example Sentences

But if he says, “I shooted you,” you're only doing him a favor by improving his form: “The correct preterite is ‘shot’.”

From Slate • Aug. 20, 2014

And what are we preterite souls left to do but open our browsers each morning with that sickly tinge of disaster anticipation we've become habituated to since Sept.

From Salon • Aug. 10, 2011

What does a writer do when he has already won the Man Booker Prize and can make copacetic use of words like preterite, spalpeen, goitrous and phthistic?

From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2010

This system is eked out with the verbal prefix ro, which among other functions changes a preterite into a perfect or a present into a perfect.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 5 "Cat" to "Celt" by Various

He says there are certain transitive verbs, whose infinitive is in outsaniel; the preterite in outsi; the imperative in oue; for example—parghatsoutsaniem, I irritate .

From The Romany Rye a sequel to "Lavengro" by Watts-Dunton, Theodore