The reason for the word "perfect" describing the perfect tenses

Question

Hi, can someone give me a hint on this.
What is the reason for the word "perfect" describing the perfect tenses. The only explanation I found so far is that they mean the completion of something, which is exactly what I was told tha it wasn't.
Help Please.
[:^)]

Guest · Accepted Answer

I think the reason is the perfect=complete connection. Sometimes the perfect does imply completion and sometimes it does not.
I have eaten. (dynamic verb and implies that you're finished eating)
I have lived in L.A. for 10 years. (stative verb and implies that I am still living here).
Whether it implicates a meaning of completion or not depends on the nature of the verb.

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Elena · Answer

Check too, Jack-in-the-box answers the same question:

Jack-in-the-box
Re: Perfect tenses
Posted: 07-23-2004 05:38 PM
"Perfect" derives from Latin "perfectus", meaning "accomplished".
Latin had a past tense called "tempus perfectum": properly, the tense that means that an action (or state) has been accomplished, or, in other words, that it has come to an end: for example, "scripsi", "I wrote", as opposed to "scribébam", "I was writing", which is called "tempus im-perfectum" (hence the English "imperfect"), because the action of writing is seen in its duration, and is therefore "un-accomplished" ("im-" of "im-perfectum" = "not").
In English, I suppose that the "present perfect" (as, "I have run") is so called because it means that an action took place in the past, and is therefore "accomplished" ("perfect"), but it still lasts, in a certain sense, in the present (in its consequences: "I've run for my life [now I'm no more running, but, as a result, I'm alive]"). So it can be considered something intermediate between the present and the past (in other languages, as in Italian and French, the corresponding tense is considered a "past" tense).
I hope I was not too confused. If I was, forgive me: I didn't do it on purpose!

The reason for the word "perfect" describing the perfect tenses

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