perfectionment

Why this word is great

PERFECTIONMENT — [Noun] The act or process of achieving perfection, or the state of having attained it. Formed within English by derivation, likely modeled on French 'perfectionnement' (from 'perfectionner,' meaning 'to perfect'). Unlike 'improvement' (which suggests incremental betterment) or 'completion' (which merely marks an end), perfectionment is the pursuit of an unattainable ideal—the violinist’s thousandth repetition of a phrase until the vibrato hums like a struck bell, the sculptor filing the last imperceptible ridge from the marble, the scholar rewriting a single sentence for the tenth year in a row. It is the quiet agony of knowing that the closer you come, the farther perfection recedes.