| perfect participle |
| Definition: The grammatical form for expressing past actions. |
| Example:
(1) You form it by adding -ed or -d to the verb's infinitive (e.g., He planted his seed). (2) Some verbs form it irregularly (e.g., go/went and eat/ate). |
| Etymology: The word participle derives via Old French from the Latin participium, a sharing or partaking. Note: The Latin grammatical term was coined as a translation of the Greek metokhe, sharer or partaker; the idea being that a participle partakes of the nature of both an adjective and a noun. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1388 (where it denotes a "noun-adjective"): "A participle of a present tens, either preterit, of actif vois, eithir passif, mai be resoluid into a verbe of the same tens, and a coniunccioun copulatif." (1388 Wyclif Prol. 57) |