optative

• (abbreviation, grammar): opt.

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒptətɪv/, /ɒpˈteɪtɪv/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Hyphenation: op‧ta‧tive
• Rhymes: -eɪtɪv

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 […], 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 […]

2. (grammar) Related or pertaining to the optative mood.

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.

• optatively

• subjunctive

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optative

1. feminine singular of optatif

optātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of optātīvus