partitive

American  

[pahr-ti-tiv] / ˈpɑr tɪ tɪv /

adjective

1. serving to divide into parts.

2. Grammar. noting part of a whole.

   the Latin partitive genitive.

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noun

1. Grammar. a partitive word or formation, as of the men in half of the men.

partitive British  

/ ˈpɑːtɪtɪv /

adjective

1. grammar indicating that a noun involved in a construction refers only to a part or fraction of what it otherwise refers to. The phrase some of the butter is a partitive construction; in some inflected languages it would be translated by the genitive case of the noun

2. serving to separate or divide into parts

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noun

1. grammar a partitive linguistic element or feature

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unpartitive
  adjective
• partitively
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of partitive

1510–20; < Medieval Latin partītīvus divisive, equivalent to Latin partīt ( us ), past participle of partīrī to divide ( see party) + -īvus -ive

Example Sentences

How is the sense of nouns commonly made indefinitely partitive?

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

In all such expressions, the name of the thing divided, is understood in the partitive word; for a part of any thing must needs be of the same species as the whole.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

It is not a predicate adjective, but a partitive genitive after hwæt.

From Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book with Inflections, Syntax, Selections for Reading, and Glossary by Smith, C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso)

Dr. Johnson seems to suppose that the partitive use of these words makes them nouns; as, "They have much of the poetry of Mecænas, but little of his liberality."—DRYDEN: in Joh.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

In prose, this superlative is not now very common; but the poets still occasionally use it, for the sake of their measure; and it ought to be noticed that the simple adjective is not partitive.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold