evitabant

Evitabant is a Latin verb form that translates roughly as “they were avoiding.” It is the imperfect indicative active, 3rd person plural of the verb evitare, a first-conjugation verb meaning to avoid or shun.

Morphology and alternate spellings: the form is built from the present stem evitare (evit-) with the imperfect endings -ābant. The standard classical spelling is evitābant, with long a. In many unaccented Latin texts, it appears without diacritics as evitabant. The related forms for the imperfect include evitābam, evitābās, evitābat, evitābāmus, evitābātis, and evitābant.

Usage and example: evitabant denotes an ongoing or repeated action in the past. It is commonly found in narrative and descriptive passages in Latin literature. For example, in a sentence like Cives hostēs evitabant, the subjects are actively avoiding the enemies over a period in the past.

Notes and context: evitare derives from a Latin root associated with avoidance or shunning, and its imperfect forms are used to convey past activity without defining a completed action. As with many Latin verb forms, the exact nuance depends on context, including related objects or clauses that specify what is being avoided and why.

See also: Latin verbs, Latin grammar, imperfect tense.