ablative absolute

American  

noun

Latin Grammar.

1. a construction not dependent upon any other part of the sentence, consisting of a noun and a participle, noun and adjective, or two nouns, in which both members are in the ablative case, as Latin viā factā, “the road having been made.”

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ablative absolute British  

noun

1. an absolute construction in Latin grammar in which a governor noun and a modifier in the ablative case function as a sentence modifier; for example, hostibus victis, "the enemy having been beaten"

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Etymology

Origin of ablative absolute

First recorded in 1520–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ablative absolute

But apparently, only a few youngsters mull over the ablative absolute out of sheer joy.

From Time Magazine Archive

I do hope these chameleon artists will leave us the multiplication table, the yardstick, and the ablative absolute.

From Reveries of a Schoolmaster by Francis B. Pearson

As for the ablative absolute, its reconstruction and regeneration have been the inspiring principle of my studious manhood.

From Average Jones by Samuel Hopkins Adams

And he says 'having no children'—in Latin the words may mean in case he had none, being in the ablative absolute.

From Sant' Ilario by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

This construction, which answers more or less to the ablative absolute of Latin, and the genitive absolute of Greek, is common to all the Celtic languages. 

From A Handbook of the Cornish Language chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature by Henry Jenner

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