past anterior

In GRAMMAR, a TENSE form used in some languages to express the rapid completion of a past action. In French, for example, it is chiefly used instead of the PLUPERFECT in past NARRATIVE after time CONJUCTIONS or when the MAIN VERB is in the PAST HISTORIC. It is formed by combining the past historic tense of an AUXILIARY verb with the past PARTICIPLE of a LEXICAL verb: Dès qu’elle eut mangé, elle sortit ‘As soon as she had eaten, she left’.