Aorist

Could anyone explain what's the term 'aorist'
used for, commonly? I have a tense in my newest
lang that I think may get the name, based on what
I remember. I quote myself:

"The aorist tense is used for unspecified past times,
especially in narrative speech, and also for the generic
present as in 'I work here', 'I like black coffee'."

whereas

"The past tense refers to punctual moments or lapses of
a continuous activity taken place in the past."


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  ... I cannot combine any characters that the divine Library
  has not foreseen, which in some of its secret tongues do not
  bear some terrible meaning. No-one can articulate a syllable
  not filled of caresses and fears; which is not, in some one
  of those languages, the powerful name of a god...
                   Jorge Luis Borges, _The Library of Babel_