optative
(Redirected from optative mood)
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- (abbreviation, grammar): opt.
EtymologyEdit
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.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
optative (not comparable)
- Expressing a wish or a choice.
- 1662, Thomas Fuller, History of the Worthies of England
- an optative blessing
- 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Back Bay, 2006. 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 ...
- 1662, Thomas Fuller, History of the Worthies of England
- (grammar) Related or pertaining to the optative mood.
TranslationsEdit
expressing a wish
|
pertaining to the optative mood
NounEdit
optative (plural optatives)
- (grammar) A mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Old Prussian, Ancient Greek), used to express a wish. English does not have inflectional optative forms.
- (grammar) A verb or expression in the optative mood.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
optative
See alsoEdit
FrenchEdit
AdjectiveEdit
optative
LatinEdit
AdjectiveEdit
optātīve