Word.ws English Dictionary

fientive

/fiˈ(j)ɛntɪv/

fientive adjective: designating a durative and dynamic action performed by the subject.

Adjective

fientive (not comparable)

  1. (Semitic linguistics) designating a durative and dynamic action performed by the subject
    • This underlines again that a contrast of nominality versus verbality conveys a stative versus fientive purport.1977, Haiim B. Rosén, Contemporary Hebrew, page 182
  2. (Indo-European linguistics) designating entering into a state as opposed to being in a state
    • 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.2007, George Hinge, “The Proto-Indo-European essive and fientive in Greek”, in glossa.dk, archived from the original on 29 Jul 2023

Origin of fientive

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.

Words that rhyme with fientive

Questions about fientive

What does fientive mean?
Fientive means designating a durative and dynamic action performed by the subject.
What part of speech is fientive?
Fientive is an adjective.
How do you pronounce fientive?
Fientive is pronounced /fiˈ(j)ɛntɪv/.

Words near fientive in the dictionary

  1. Fiene
  2. Fienen
  3. Fienes
  4. Fiennes
  5. fientic
  6. fientive
  7. Fienup
  8. fier
  9. fierasfer
  10. fierasfers
  11. Fierbinți-Târg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fientive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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