elative meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

elative

noun

UK /ɪˈleɪtɪv/

Etymology From Latin ēlātus (“exalted, lofty, high”) + -ive. Possibly borrowed from German, which has produced a great deal of pioneering Semitist literature, and where Elativ is a common term for absolute superlative in all languages.

In Semitic languages, the “adjective degree of superiority”. In some languages such as Arabic, the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the elative. How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

The elative of كَبِير (kabīr, “big”) is أَكْبَر (ʔakbar, “bigger/biggest, greater/greatest”).

elative

adj

Rare Exalted; feeling elation.

And so the fleas, and flies in their degree, / By their attracted moyst humiditie, / Drawne from a certaine vertue elatiue, / Whence raine his generation doth deriue: / Seeke more than their accustom'd nutriment.1595, Thomas Lodge, A fig for Momus:
Thither shall gratitude's feelings elative wend, / Bath'd in the dew of the soul's lofty swelling.1838, James Struthers, Poetic Tales, page 125:

2 more examples

The first case is that of E. M., 37 years of age, laborer, who on admission was elative, over-talkative, had a well marked feeling of well being.1910 May 23, David Henderson, “The Diagnosis of Brain Syphilis”, in State Hospital Bullitens, volume III, number 1, [New York] State Commission in Lunacy:
whereas if one thinks instead that it is inflicted by others, then the elative feeling is one of masochism, which is quite rightly deemed a disease.1984, Richard Taylor, Good and Evil: A New Direction: a Forceful Attack on the Rationalistic Tradition in Ethics, page 242:

elative

noun

Etymology From Latin ēlātus, perfect past participle of efferō (“to carry out or away”)

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences In Finno-Ugric languages, one of the locative cases, expressing “out of,” or “from” as in Finnish talosta, Hungarian házból (“out of the house”). Its opposite is the illative case (“into”). In Finnish, the case form is used also to express "out of" or "proximity" in a figurative sense which in English is often conveyed by the word "about".

Related terms: absolute superlative, comparative, comparative superlative, degrees of comparison, elative case, positive, relative superlative, superlative

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.