释义 |
ˌpreterpluˈperfect, a. (n.) [ad. late L. præteritum plusquamperfectum (Priscian c 525), with contraction: see preter, preterite, and pluperfect.] 1. Gram. = pluperfect a. 1. Also ellipt. as n. Now rare or Obs.
1530Palsgr. 84 The preterplusperfit tens, as javóye parlé I had spoken. 1591Percivall Sp. Dict. C j, The preterpluperfectence, the time more then perfectly past. 1612Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 33 What time speaks the Præterpluperfect Tense of? A. Of that which is more than perfectly past, or past a long while since. 1685H. More Paralip. Prophet. ix. 53, ἐγεγόνει being the Preterpluperfect tense. 1799[see preterimperfect]. 1862Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xiii. xiv. (1872) V. 137 Friedrich..gave him to know..that coöperation was henceforth a thing of the preterpluperfect tense. 2. gen. or allusively. More than ‘pluperfect’; superlatively perfect. (Chiefly in humorous use.)
1599Massinger, etc. Old Law iv. i, Darest thou call my wife strumpet, thou preterpluperfect tense of a woman! 1652J. Taylor (Water P.) (title) Newes from Tenebris: or preterpluperfect nocturnall or night Worke. c1817Hogg Tales & Sk. II. 334 Most sanctimonious and preterpluperfect maiden! I abhor myself for once suspecting your impenetrability. 1892T. R. Lounsbury Stud. Chaucer I. 348 There are men who, neither in language nor in literature, can be satisfied with perfect propriety. They insist upon what may be termed preterpluperfect propriety. |