"perfect" in seven languages
Meaningperfect
Spanish
/peɾˈfekto/
learned
French
/paʁfɛ/
inherited
Italian
/perˈfɛtto/
inherited
Portuguese
/pehˈfejtu/
inherited
Latin -CT- became -it- in Portuguese: PERFECTUM → perfeito, NOCTEM → noite.
Romanian
/perˈfekt/
learned
Catalan
/pəɾˈfɛktə/
learned
English
/ˈpɝfɪkt/
from Latin/French · Old French parfit, respelled after Latin perfectus
The Latin ancestor
PERFECTUM‘finished, complete (participle of PERFICERE)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
CT shows the split: French parfait has the it of fait, Italian perfetto the tt of fatto, but Spanish perfecto keeps the Latin cluster because it is the learned form. English respelled Middle English parfit to look Latin.
English relatives: perfection, perfectly
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esNadie es perfecto.
- frPersonne n'est parfait.
- itNessuno è perfetto.
- ptNinguém é perfeito.
- roNimeni nu e perfect.
- caNingú no és perfecte.
- enNobody is perfect.
The Latin family
FAC-, FACT-· do, make
FACERE is the busiest verb in Latin, and its participle FACTUM split cleanly in two: worn down in speech to hecho, fait, fatto, and borrowed back intact by scholars as fact, factual, faction. Spanish adds a twist of its own, turning Latin F- into a silent h- (Old Spanish fazer, fecho). Portuguese feito and Catalan fet vocalize the cluster as French does, while Romanian, true to the Eastern branch, turns -CT- into -pt-: fapt.
FACEREto do, make
eshacerfrfaireitfareptfazerrofacecafer
FACTUMdone; a deed
eshechofrfaititfattoptfeitorofaptcafetenfact
PERFECTUMcompleted, perfect
esperfectofrparfaititperfettoptperfeitoroperfectcaperfecteenperfect
FACTIŌNEMa making; a party, faction
frfaçonptfeiçãoenfashion
FACTIŌNEMa party, faction (learned)
esfacciónfrfactionitfazioneptfacçãorofacțiunecafaccióenfaction
FACTŪRAMa making, workmanship
esfacturafrfactureitfatturaptfaturarofacturăcafactura