Aorist

Aorist

Aorist ( /ˈeɪ.ərɨst/; abbreviated AOR) is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning. In Indo-European languages such as Greek, Sanskrit, Armenian and Macedonian, as well as languages influenced by the Indo-European tradition, such as Georgian, the term is usually used for forms that express perfective aspect and often refer to past events. "Aorist" comes from Ancient Greek aóristos "indefinite", because it was the unmarked (default) form of the verb, and thus did not have the implications of the imperfective aspect, which referred to an ongoing or repeated situation, or the perfect, which referred to a situation with a continuing relevance, but described an action "pure and simple".

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