- (abbreviation, grammar):opt.
FromMiddle Frenchoptatif, fromLate Latinoptātīvus, acalque ofAncient Greekεὐκτική(euktikḗ,“related to wishing”), fromLatinoptātus, past participle ofoptāre.
- IPA(key): /ˈɒptətɪv/,/ɒpˈteɪtɪv/
- Hyphenation:op‧ta‧tive
- Rhymes:-eɪtɪv
optative (notcomparable)
- 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], published1662,→OCLC:anoptative blessing
1996, David Foster Wallace,Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.:Little, Brown and Company,→ISBN,page64:[…] then, in theoptative 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 optativemood.
pertaining to the optative mood
optative (pluraloptatives)
- (grammar) Amood ofverbs found in some languages (e.g.Sanskrit,Old Prussian, andAncient Greek, but not English), used to express a wish.
- (grammar) Averb orexpression in the optative mood.
optative
- femininesingular ofoptatif
optātīve
- vocativemasculinesingular ofoptātīvus
