nominative absolute

American  

noun

Grammar.

1. a construction consisting in English of a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in the nominative case followed by a predicate lacking a finite verb, used as a loose modifier of the whole sentence, as the play done in The play done, the audience left the theater.

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Etymology

Origin of nominative absolute

First recorded in 1835–45; by analogy with ablative absolute

Example Sentences

Examine the nominative absolute construction in st. xiv and xxxix.

From Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Spenser, Edmund

Say, "This rule is often infringed by an improper use of the nominative absolute;" for this is precisely what these authors mean.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

The nominative of direct address, and phrases in the nominative absolute construction are cut off by commas.

From English: Composition and Literature by Webster, W. F. (William Franklin)

A real nominative absolute is as illogical as a real accusative case governing a verb.

From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)

Other idioms, which have generally been confounded with those last mentioned, have the indeterminate pronoun preceded by a nominative absolute.

From Early English Alliterative Poems in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century by Morris, Richard