impactive

English

Etymology

From impact +‎ -ive.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

impactive (comparative more impactive, superlative most impactive)

1. Of, pertaining to, possessing, or caused by impact.
   • 1880, W. S. Barnard, “Protoplasmic Dynamics”, in The American Naturalist, volume 14, number 4, page 237:

     It is necessary to distinguish all forces sharply into two groups: 1, the attractional (gravity, adhesion, cohesion, chemism), and 2, the impactive or momentum forces of masses, molecules and atoms.

   • 1934, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night: A Romance, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as chapter II, in Malcolm Cowley, editor, Tender is the Night: A Romance [...] With the Author’s Final Revisions, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, →OCLC, book II (Rosemary’s Angle: 1919–1925), pages 59–60:

     As Rosemary came onto the beach a boy of twelve ran past her and dashed into the sea with exultant cries. Feeling the impactive scrutiny of strange faces, she took off her bathrobe and followed.

   • 1970, Kent Kirby, “Art, Technology and the Liberal Arts College”, in Art Journal, volume 29, number 3, page 330:

     Along with this revolution has come another, quieter and more subtle, but perhaps more impactive and ultimately more dynamic in its potential for change.

   • 2001 February 18, Elissa Gootman, “An Intricate Bond; New Haven's past and future are so tied to Yale, but it took 300 years for the two to get along”, in New York Times:

     And in what may prove to be the most impactive development, the university is nurturing the nexus of science and business to create a biotechnology sector that has already brought millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs into town.

Derived terms

• nonimpactive

References

• “impactive”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.