imported
UK[ɪmˈpɔːtɪd]US[ɪmˈpɔːrtɪd]
v
brought (goods or services) into a country from abroad for sale.
v
transferred (data) into a file or document from another system or format.
adj
(of goods or services) brought into a country from abroad.
Morpheme Breakdown
im
port
ed
im
in
port
carry
ed
past/adj suffix
Etymology
the word 'imported' is built upon the core latin verb 'portare', meaning 'to carry'. the prefix 'im-' (a variant of 'in-') signifies direction 'into'. thus, the literal sense of the latin root 'importare' was 'to carry in'. this concrete meaning evolved in english to specifically denote the commercial act of carrying goods into a country. the addition of the '-ed' suffix creates the past participle, which functions both as a verb form and an adjective describing the state of the goods. the semantic journey is a clear and logical extension from the physical act of carrying something in to the modern economic and digital contexts of bringing in commodities or data.
Analysis
Structure: im (in) + port (carry) + ed (past/adj suffix)
- im: a latin prefix meaning 'in', 'into', or 'on'. it is an assimilated form of 'in-' used before 'p'.
- port: from latin 'portare', meaning 'to carry'.
- ed: an english suffix used to form the past tense and past participle of regular verbs, and to form adjectives from nouns or verbs.
Examples
the company imported fine wines from france and italy.
she imported the contact list from her old phone to the new one.
consumers often prefer imported cars for their perceived higher quality.