accusative
/əˈkjuzətɪv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.51 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Producing accusations; in a manner that reflects a finding of fault or blame
adj
Applied to the case (as the fourth case of Latin, Lithuanian and Greek nouns) which expresses the immediate object on which the action or influence of a transitive verb has its limited influence. Other parts of speech, including secondary or predicate direct objects, will also influence a sentence’s construction. In German the case used for direct objects.
noun
The accusative case.
noun
A word inflected in the accusative case.
Example Sentences
- "This hath been a very accusative age."
- "The proprietor of the store was rude, insulting and accusative."
- "65 mošu tat̰ ās nōit̮ darəγəm yat̰ . . ‘quickly it (tat̰) happened, it (was) not long till . . . — drūm avantəm airištəm: according to Bartholomae IF. 12. 146 the author of this part was led to use accusatives here (instead of nominatives) by the preceding sentence yezi ǰum frapayeni."
- "There is some antecedent in old Latin; but as usual the influence is Greek too, for Greek prose and poetry freely use accusatives which are to some extent adverbial accusatives, or accusatives of respect."
- "Romani distinguishes dative and accusative pronouns formally and some Romani dialects use accusatives in constructions in which other languages employ a dative."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Italic *kaussā Old Latin caussa Latin causa Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin accūsō Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Ancient Greek αἰτῐᾱτῐκή (aitĭātĭkḗ)calq. Latin accūsātīvusder. Anglo-Norman accusatifbor. ▲ Latin accūsātīvusder. Middle French acusatifbor. ▲ Latin accūsātīvusbor. Middle English accusative English accusative First attested in the mid 15th century. From Middle English accusative, from Anglo-Norman accusatif or Middle French acusatif or from Latin accūsātīvus (“having been blamed”), from accūsō (“to blame”). Equivalent to accuse + -ative. The Latin form is a mistranslation of the Ancient Greek grammatical term αἰτιᾱτική (aitiātikḗ, “expressing an effect”). This term actually comes from αἰτιᾱτός (aitiātós, “caused”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, adjective suffix), but was reanalyzed as coming from αἰτιᾱ- (aitiā-), the stem of the verb αἰτιάομαι (aitiáomai, “to blame”), + -τῐκός (-tĭkós, verbal adjective suffix).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈkjuzətɪv/
- British English: /əˈkjuːzətɪv/