passival

noun

passival

noun

Etymology Probably from Classical Latin passīvus + -al, after adjectival, nominal, etc. By surface analysis, passive (noun) + -al.

1

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences An archaic progressive construction in middle voice (syntactically active but semantically passive), replaced by the passive progressive in modern English. For example, "the house is building", "the meal was eating", "the trunks were carrying down" (today "the house is being built", "the meal is being eaten").

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