| 释义 |
-ive, suffix
forming adjs. (and ns.) Formerly also -if, -ife; a. Fr. -if, fem. -ive (= It., Sp. -ivo):—L. īv-us, a suffix added to the ppl. stem of verbs, as in act-īvus active, pass-īvus passive, nātīv-us of inborn kind; sometimes to the pres. stem, as cad-īvus falling, and to ns. as tempest-īvus seasonable. Few of these words came down in OF., e.g. naïf, naïve:—L. nātīv-um; but the suffix is largely used in the modern Romanic langs., and in Eng., to adapt L. words in -īvus, or form words on L. analogies, with the sense ‘having a tendency to, having the nature, character, or quality of, given to (some action)’. The meaning differs from that of ppl. adjs. in -ing, -ant, -ent, in implying a permanent or habitual quality or tendency: cf. acting, active, attracting, attractive, coherent, cohesive, consequent, consecutive. From their derivation, the great majority of these end in -sive and -tive, and of these about one half in -ative, which tends consequently to become a living suffix, as in talk-ative, etc. A few are formed immediately on the vb. stem, esp. where this ends in s (c) or t, thus easily passing muster among those formed on the ppl. stem; such are amusive, coercive, conducive, crescive, forcive, piercive, adaptive, adoptive, denotive, humective; a few are from ns., as massive. In costive, the -ive is not a suffix.
Already in L. many of these adjs. were used subst.; this precedent is freely followed in the mod. langs. and in English: e.g. adjective, captive, derivative, expletive, explosive, fugitive, indicative, incentive, invective, locomotive, missive, native, nominative, prerogative, sedative, subjunctive.
In some words the final consonant of OF. -if, from -īvus, was lost in ME., leaving in mod.Eng. -y: e.g. hasty, jolly, tardy.
Adverbs from adjs. in -ive are formed in -ively; abstract ns. in -iveness and -ivity (F. -iveté, -ivité, L. -īvitāt-em), as in activity, conductivity, resistivity, and similar terms; also spec. (see quot. 1895).
1885O. Heaviside in Electrician 4 Sept. 311/1 Thus, ‘specific resistance’ may well be called ‘resistivity’, and specific conductance ‘conductivity’, referring to the unit volume. Resistivity is the reciprocal of conductivity, and resistance of conductance. 1895Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 197 That the termination -ance be used in general for words expressing the properties of a definite body or piece of matter; e.g., resistance, conductance, inductance, permeance, reluctance, &c.; and that the termination -ivity or -ility or the like be used for words expressing the specific properties of a material; e.g., conductivity, resistivity, inductivity, refractivity, permeability, &c. |