fientive

English

Etymology

From Latin fīēns (“becoming; happening”, present active participle of fīō (“to become; to happen”)), on the pattern of words such as stative, durative, iterative, causative etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈ(j)ɛntɪv/
• Rhymes: -ɛntɪv

Adjective

fientive (not comparable)

1. (grammar, Semitic linguistics) designating a durative and dynamic action performed by the subject
   • 1977, Haiim B. Rosén, Contemporary Hebrew, page 182:

     This underlines again that a contrast of nominality versus verbality conveys a stative versus fientive purport.

2. (grammar, Indo-European linguistics) designating entering into a state as opposed to being in a state
   • 2007, George Hinge, “The Proto-Indo-European essive and fientive in Greek”, in glossa.dk‎, archived from the original on 29-07-2023:

     The basic idea is that what previous scholarship categorised as a stative, viz. the various forms going back to a derivation with a long ē, is in fact a fientive, i.e. it designates the becoming and not the being.