compositive

English

Etymology

Latin compositivus, from com- (“together”) + positus (“placed”).

Adjective

compositive (comparative more compositive, superlative most compositive)

1. Having the quality of entering into composition; compounded.
   • 2010, Jon McGinnis, Avicenna, page 115:

     The compositive imagination is thus characterized for Avicenna by its power “to combine and separate parts of sensible objects with other parts.”

   • 2015, Jukka K. Korpela, Handbook of Finnish:

     As a common example, nouns and adjective ending with nen normally have a compositive form ending with s instead of nen. For example, ihminen (human being) has the compositive form ihmis, appearing in words like ihmiskunta (mankind) and ihmissuhde (personal relationship).

2. Characterized by forming an understanding through the accumulation or combination of details, as opposed to deduction from a theoretical model.
   • 2018, Ralph M. McInerny, Being and Predication, page 53:

     A compositive rational mode is had in this way when we reason from causes to effects; the resolutive rational mode is in the opposite direction, from effects to causes.

   • 2020, Karl Mittermaier, The Hand Behind the Invisible Hand:

     From simple features of mental life familiar to us all, compositive theory infers more complex social phenomena in very general terms

Derived terms

• compositively

 

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “compositive”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Italian

Adjective

compositive

1. feminine plural of compositivo