actionaladj.
/ˈakʃn̩(ə)l/, /ˈakʃən(ə)l/, U.S. /ˈækʃ(ə)nəl/ 1.
a. Law. Of or relating to legal actions; actionable.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > action of courts in claims or grievances > [adjective] > liable to an action at law
pleadablec1455
actionala1475
pleable1494
suitablea1555
litigious1568
impleadable1576
issuable?1577
suable1596
actionablea1601
questionable1639
litigable1767
a1475 in A. Clark Eng. Reg. Godstow Nunnery (1905) i. 225 (MED) Gefrey brocher of blechesdon gaf..iij d of yerly rent in þe town of blechesdon..with all hys Ryht and accionall maner within the towne & without the towne.
1662 in Rec. Colony Rhode Island (1856) I. 497 It shall be alowed on the actionall case aforesayd.
1664 Rec. Colony Rhode Island (1857) II. 57 For the triall of any actionall matter.
1909 Univ. Pennsylvania Law Rev. & Amer. Law Reg. 58 177 The enticement of servants had long been held an actional wrong to the master at common law.
1952 Univ. Chicago Law Rev. 20 171 The strictly actional character of classical Roman law.
2000 W. C. Mackey & N. S. Coney Gender Roles, Trad. & Generations to Come v. 95 Sexual harassment is actional if sexual favors are required to get or keep a job.
b. More generally: of, relating to, or characterized by action or actions.
ΚΠ
1845 N. P. Willis Dashes at Life with Free Pencil iv. 204 The tumblers being separated from the essential actional parts of the lock..by a perpendicular wall of solid steel.
a1866 J. Grote Exam. Utilit. Philos. (1870) xviii. 307 The actional principle of conservatism.
1907 Mind 16 202 The moral life may conceivably be persuaded not by ontological nor even by actional motives but only by the..feeling-tone..realised in its being.
2006 P. Gibbons Bridging Disc. in ESL Classroom viii. 241 Meaning resides in the interrelationship between the verbal and actional behaviour of the teacher.
2. Grammar. That expresses an action. Cf. statal adj. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > voice > [adjective] > active
activea1450
actional1784
1784 R. Labutte French Gram. ii. i. 70 When actional substantives end in any termination but ion, son, or e mute, they are of the masculine gender.
1857 E. Yates Elem. Sci. of Gram. viii. 100 We have در, being the actional form, answering to it is.
1935 G. O. Curme Gram. Eng. Lang. II. 218 The common actional form is employed also as a statal passive... ‘The door was shut (state) at six, but I don't know when it was shut (act)’.
1973 R. Quirk et al. University Gram. Eng. (1975) xii. 359 A sentence such as They were married is ambiguous between an actional interpretation..and a statal interpretation.
1996 Internat. Rev. Appl. Ling. 34 50 The actional element is associated with speech acts, the modal element with the relationship holding between the interactants, and the propositional element is associated with the content of the communication event.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.a1475