Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being the grammatical case expressing possession, measurement, or source.
- adjective Of or relating to an affix or construction, such as a prepositional phrase, characteristic of the genitive case.
- noun The genitive case.
- noun A word or form in the genitive case.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Connected with or relating to generation.
- In grammar, pertaining to or indicating origin, source, possession, and the like: an epithet applied to a case in the declension of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, etc., which in English is called the possessive case, or to the relation expressed by such a case: as, patris, ‘of a father, a father's,’ is the genitive case of the Latin noun pater, a father.
- noun In grammar, a case in the declension of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, etc., expressing in the widest sense a relation of appurtenance between one thing and another, an adjectival relation of one noun to another, or more specifically source, origin, possession, and the like; in English grammar, the possessive case.
- noun Abbreviated genitive
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gram.) The genitive case.
- noun a construction in Greek similar to the ablative absolute in Latin. See Ablative absolute.
- adjective (Gram.) Of or pertaining to that case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses source or possession. It corresponds to the possessive case in English.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective grammar Of or pertaining to that
case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expressesorigin orpossession . It corresponds to thepossessive case in English. - noun grammar, uncountable An
inflection pattern (of any given language) thatexpresses origin orownership andpossession . - noun grammar, countable A
word inflected in the genitive case; a word indicating origin, ownership or possession.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective serving to express or indicate possession
- noun the case expressing ownership
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Such a genitive, denoting the whole of which a part is taken, is called a «partitive genitive».
Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900
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The possessive genitive often stands in the predicate, especially after the forms of «sum», and is then called the _predicate genitive_.
Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900
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Words denoting a part are often used with the genitive of the whole, known as _the partitive genitive_.
Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900
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_Words denoting a part are often used with the genitive of the whole, known as the «partitive genitive».
Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900
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The genitive is the most interesting case in English, since it is the only one that you have a choice to use (as you could make an of-genitive as well).
Book Review: “Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue” « Motivated Grammar 2010
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So here it looks like the double genitive is the best option.
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So here it looks like the double genitive is the best option.
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But here’s what’s weird about Kilpatrick’s argument: he claims that the double genitive is wasteful.
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But here’s what’s weird about Kilpatrick’s argument: he claims that the double genitive is wasteful.
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This zero grade form is attested in the dative, but not in the genitive, which is odd.
My sweet honey bee 2010
uselessness commented on the word genitive
This word just sounds dirty. Can we come up with an alternative?
May 16, 2007
zeichensprache commented on the word genitive
wwld? (substutite german or Russian or any other case-based language for Latin, I suppose.)
May 17, 2007
uselessness commented on the word genitive
I don't have a problem with the genitive case. I just don't like the word genitive. We should call it, oh I don't know, possesstrophe or something fun and fairly indicative like that. For the full backstory, I'm the guy who gets all sensitive when he hears words that might have even an inkling of a glimmer of a negative connotation. See also The No-No List (to which this word has been added). I take pride in my reactionism. ;-)
May 17, 2007
zeichensprache commented on the word genitive
I never thought about it but I actually like the sound of genitive. It sounds maybe nicer in German pronunciation with the soft 'g'. Also, it's better, in my mind, than the unnecessarily harsh sounds that appear in the words 'Accusative' and 'Dative.' 'Nominative' too appears to be more friendly than it is. What are we left with for comfort? Only poor genitive, meek and modest.
May 17, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word genitive
Nothing with "jen" in it can be *too* awful. ;)
May 19, 2007
sarra commented on the word genitive
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=965#comment-16569
January 2, 2009