Etymology From Middle French optatif, from Late Latin optātīvus, a calque of Ancient Greek εὐκτική (euktikḗ, “related to wishing”), from Latin optātus, past participle of optāre.
1
Expressing a wish or a choice.
an optative blessinga. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:
[…] then, in the optative retirement from hard science that building and opening a U.S.T.A-accredited and pedagogically experimental tennis academy apparently represented for him […]1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 64:
2
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Related or pertaining to the optative mood.
Etymology From Middle French optatif, from Late Latin optātīvus, a calque of Ancient Greek εὐκτική (euktikḗ, “related to wishing”), from Latin optātus, past participle of optāre.
1
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Old Prussian, Tamil, and Ancient Greek, but not English), used to express a wish.
2
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A verb or expression in the optative mood.