Aorist (/ˈeɪərɪst/ AY-ər-ist; abbreviated AOR) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite.
The word comes from Ancient Greek ἀόριστος (aóristos 'indefinite'),[1][2] as the aorist 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; instead it described an action "pure and simple".
[4] In Proto-Indo-European, the aorist appears to have originated as a series of verb forms expressing manner of action.
By the time of Classical Greek, this system was maintained largely in independent instances of the non-indicative moods and in the nonfinite forms.
"[10] An example of how the aorist tense contrasts with the imperfect in describing the past occurs in Xenophon's Anabasis, when the Persian aristocrat Orontas is executed: "and those who had been previously in the habit of bowing (προσεκύνουν prosekúnoun, imperfect) to him, bowed (προσεκύνησαν prosekúnēsan, aorist) to him even then.
The aorist has often been interpreted as making a strong statement about the aspect or even the time of an event, when, in fact, due to its being the unmarked (default) form of the Greek verb, such implications are often left to context.
However, in Western South Slavic languages it has become, along with the imperfect and pluperfect, largely obsolete in daily parlance and mostly superseded by the perfect and circumlocution.
In both languages, the aorist appears mostly in older literature, scripture, religious services and legislation and so carries an archaic tone.
As such, its use in formal settings can be construed as either pretentious and bombastic or conversely as rustic and unsophisticated, depending on locale.
The prevalence of the aorist varied widely by region prior to the grammatical changes during the communists' rise to power in SFR Yugoslavia after World War II.
In 1933, the Serbian linguist Aleksandar Belić was tasked by the authorities of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with creating a formal grammar for the new Serbo-Croatian standard.
Belić's redefinition and use of aorist in fiction writing was tolerated due to abundance of its use in older literature.
In standardized forms, the aorist is used for witnessed actions from a specific time in the past, mostly with verbs of perfective aspect.
It most often corresponds to the simple past tense in English: I read the book, I wrote the letter, I ate my supper, etc.
[30] In Mingrelian and Laz, the aorist is basically a past tense and can be combined with both perfective and imperfective aspects as well as the imperative and the subjunctive moods.
The Turkish aorist is commonly used in enquiries about someone's wishes, as in Bir şey yemek ister misiniz?