different between imperfect vs counterfeit

English

Etymology

From Middle English imperfit, from Old French imparfit (modern French imparfait), from Latin imperfectus. Spelling modified 15c. to conform Latin etymology. See im- +? perfect.

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun) IPA^(key): /?m?p??(?)f?kt/, /?m?p??(?)f?kt/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /?mp?(?)?f?kt/

Adjective

imperfect (comparative more imperfect, superlative most imperfect)

1. not perfect

   Synonyms: defective, fallible, faultful, faulty

   Antonyms: faultless, infallible, perfect
2. (botany) unisexual: having either male (with stamens) or female (with pistil) flowers, but not with both.

   Antonym: perfect

3. (taxonomy) known or expected to be polyphyletic, as of a form taxon.
4. (obsolete) lacking some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
   • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, Twenty-five Sermons preached at Golden Grove; being for the Winter Half-year, "Christ's Advent to Judgment"

     He […] stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.

5. (grammar) belonging to a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

Related terms

• imperfection

Translations

Noun

imperfect (plural imperfects)

1. something having a minor flaw
2. (grammar) a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

   Synonym: preterimperfect

Derived terms

• imperfective

Translations

Verb

imperfect (third-person singular simple present imperfects, present participle imperfecting, simple past and past participle imperfected)

1. (transitive) to make imperfect
   • 1651, John Donne, Letter to Henry Goodere, in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, edited by Charles Edmund Merrill, Jr., New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1910,^[1]

     I write to you from the Spring Garden, whither I withdrew my self to think of this; and the intensenesse of my thinking ends in this, that by my help Gods work should be imperfected, if by any means I resisted the amasement.

   • 1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition edited by Samuel Johnson, London: J. Payne, 1756, Part I, p. 43,^[2]

     Time, which perfects some things, imperfects also others.

   • 1962, Alec Harman and Wilfrid Mellers, Man and His Music: The Story of Musical Experience in the West, Oxford University Press, Part I, Chapter 5, p. 126,^[3]

     […] such was their desire for greater rhythmic freedom that composers began to use red notes as well. […] Their value was […] restricted at first, for redness implies the imperfecting of a note which is perfect if black […]

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /imper?fekt/

Adjective

imperfect m or n (feminine singular imperfect?, masculine plural imperfec?i, feminine and neuter plural imperfecte)

1. imperfect

Declension

Antonyms

• perfect

Related terms

• imperfec?iune

English

Etymology

Anglo-Norman countrefait, from Old French contrefait.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ka?n.t??f?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Adjective

counterfeit (not comparable)

1. False, especially of money; intended to deceive or carry appearance of being genuine.

2. Inauthentic.

3. Assuming the appearance of something; deceitful; hypocritical.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:fake

Translations

Noun

counterfeit (plural counterfeits)

1. A non-genuine article; a fake.
   • c.1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV part I, Act II, scene 4:

   • 1971, Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150—750, Thames & Hudson LTD (2013 reprint), ?ISBN, page 53.

2. One who counterfeits; a counterfeiter.
3. (obsolete) That which resembles another thing; a likeness; a portrait; a counterpart.
   • 1590 Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene Book III, canto VIII:

4. (obsolete) An impostor; a cheat.
   • c.1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV part I, Act V, scene 4

Translations

Verb

counterfeit (third-person singular simple present counterfeits, present participle counterfeiting, simple past and past participle counterfeited)

1. (transitive) To falsely produce what appears to be official or valid; to produce a forged copy of.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To produce a faithful copy of.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To feign; to mimic.
   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Village Schoolmaster

4. (transitive, poker, usually "be counterfeited") Of a turn or river card, to invalidate a player's hand by making a better hand on the board.

Derived terms

• uncounterfeited

Translations