optative
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- (abbreviation, grammar): opt.
Etymology
[edit]From Middle French optatif, from Late Latin optātīvus, a calque of Ancient Greek εὐκτική (euktikḗ, “related to wishing”), from Latin optātus, past participle of optāre.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈɒptətɪv/, /ɒpˈteɪtɪv/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Hyphenation: op‧ta‧tive
- Rhymes: -eɪtɪv
Adjective
[edit]optative (not comparable)
- Expressing a wish or a choice.
- a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:
- an optative blessing
- 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 64:
- […] then, in the optative retirement from hard science that building and opening a U.S.T.A-accredited and pedagogically experimental tennis academy apparently represented for him […]
- (grammar) Related or pertaining to the optative mood.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]expressing a wish
|
pertaining to the optative mood
Noun
[edit]optative (plural optatives)
- (grammar) A mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Old Prussian, and Ancient Greek, but not English), used to express a wish.
- (grammar) A verb or expression in the optative mood.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]optative
|
See also
[edit]French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio: (file)
Adjective
[edit]optative
Latin
[edit]Adjective
[edit]optātīve
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪtɪv
- Rhymes:English/eɪtɪv/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Grammar
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Grammatical moods
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French non-lemma forms
- French adjective forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin adjective forms