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

  • IPA(key): /ˈɒptətɪv/, /ɒpˈteɪtɪv/
  • Hyphenation: op‧ta‧tive
  • Rhymes: -eɪtɪv

AdjectiveEdit

optative (not comparable)

  1. 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: A Novel, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: 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 []
  2. (grammar) Related or pertaining to the optative mood.

TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

optative (plural optatives)

  1. (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.
  2. (grammar) A verb or expression in the optative mood.

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

FrenchEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • (file)

AdjectiveEdit

optative

  1. feminine singular of optatif

LatinEdit

AdjectiveEdit

optātīve

  1. vocative masculine singular of optātīvus