sputaverat

Sputaverat is a Latin verb form meaning “he had spat.” It is the third-person singular pluperfect active indicative of the verb sputāre, which can be translated as “to spit” or “to spit out.” The pluperfect expresses an action completed before another past action.

Morphology and etymology: The form is built from the perfect stem sputav- and the standard pluperfect ending -erat, yielding sputāverat in full with macrons. The related noun sputum (spit, phlegm) shares the same root, illustrating the semantic field of the verb. In dictionaries, sputāre is typically listed as a first-conjugation verb meaning to spit.

Usage: Sputaverat occurs in classical and late Latin to indicate a past action that had already been completed when another past event occurred. It is commonly found in narrative or descriptive passages that recount sequences of events, or in reported speech and historical writing. In modern discussions of Latin grammar, sputaverat is cited as a canonical example of the pluperfect tense and verb formation.

Examples: A stand-alone citation such as “Sputaverat” translates to “He had spat.” In context, it would be part of a larger sentence describing a sequence of events in the past, for example in a narrative clause: “Marcus sputaverat priusquam loquisset,” meaning “Marcus had spat before he had spoken” (note: broader context would determine the exact subordinate clause mood). The pluperfect paradigm would extend similarly for other persons: sputaverat (he had spat), sputaveramus (we had spat), sputaverant (they had spat), and so on.

See also: sputum, spūtage (lit. to spit), Latin verbs and the pluperfect tense.