-ive Definition

iv
suffix
Performing or tending toward a specified action.
Demonstrative.
American Heritage

An adjective suffix signifying relating or belonging to, of the nature of, tending to; as affirmative, active, conclusive, corrective, diminutive.

Wiktionary
affix
Of, relating to, belonging to, having the nature or quality of.
Sportive.
Webster's New World
Tending to, given to.
Retrospective.
Webster's New World

Origin of -ive

  • From Anglo-Norman -if (feminine -ive), from Latin -ivus. Until the fourteenth century all Middle English loanwords from Anglo-Norman ended in -if (compare actif, natif, sensitif, pensif etc.), and under the influence of literary Neolatin both languages introduced the form -ive. Those forms that have not been replaced were subsequently changed to end in -y (compare hasty, from hastif, jolly, from jolif etc.).

    From Wiktionary

  • Like the Latin suffix -io (genitive -ionis), Latin suffix -ivus is appended to the perfect passive participle to form an adjective of action.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old French from Latin -īvus adj. suff

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • ME < OFr -if, fem. -ive < L -ivus

    From Webster's New World College Dictionary, 5th Edition

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