partitive

1. Dividing or serving to divide something into parts; marked by division.
2. Grammar. Indicating a part as distinct from a whole, as some of the coffee in the sentence She drank some of the coffee.

1. A partitive word, such as many or less.
2. A partitive construction or case.

[Middle English, from Old French partitif, from Medieval Latin partītīvus, from Latin partītus, past participle of partīre, to divide. See partite.]

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: word (such a `some' or `less') that is used to indicate a part as distinct from a whole

The adjective partitive has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: (Romance languages) relating to or denoting a part of a whole or a quantity that is less than the whole
  Pertains to noun: part (meaning #1)

Meaning #2: indicating or characterized by or serving to create partition or division into parts
  Pertains to noun: partition (meaning #2)

Meaning #3: serving to separate or divide into parts
  Synonym: separative

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Look up partitive in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The partitive can refer to several things:

• Partitive case
• partitive meaning of noun phrases

The partitive refers to the selection of a part/quantity out of a group/amount. It is used for example in Estonian (the third case), in Latin, German and Russian, expressed by the genitive case, and in French, expressed with the preposition de (and its contracted forms).

Examples (with the partitive marked in italics):

• many of my friends
• the youngest of the children
• a glass of wine.

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)