optatively

op·ta·tive

(ŏp′tə-tĭv)

adj.

1. Expressing a wish or choice.

2. Grammar

a. Of, relating to, or being a mood of verbs in some languages, such as Greek, used to express a wish.

b. Designating a statement using a verb in the subjunctive mood to indicate a wish or desire, as in Had I the means, I would do it.

n. Grammar

1. The optative mood.

2. A verb or an expression in the optative mood.

[Middle English optatif, from Old French, from Late Latin optātīvus, from Latin optātus, past participle of optāre, to wish.]

op′ta·tive·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

optatively

(ˈɒptətɪvlɪ)

adv

in a manner which expresses the speaker's desires

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive ?

[Examines "the specific figure of the apostrophic O as it appears in Whitman's preCivil War poetry" (and especially in his poem, "Apostroph") and demonstrates a "connection between apostrophization and the O sound-symbol" that he uses so frequently in the 1860 Leaves of Grass; argues that when Whitman "invokes the trope of the apostrophic O--a visual symbol of wholeness in its circularity--he optatively envisions and prefigures a unitive and democratic future in the face of his nation's dividing crisis."]

Walt Whitman: a current bibliography

Nevertheless, not even optatively does the novel ever fully identify itself with any revolutionary action that might be undertaken by the oppressed; there is always a sense of holding back at the last moment, of taking fright at the very possibilities for widespread uprising which the novel discloses.

Audience and closure in 'The Grapes of Wrath.'

(9) It is my contention that Whitman's use of the apostrophe in the immediate foreground of the Civil War is neither a rhetorical accident nor simply a poetic cliche, for where Whitman invokes the trope of the apostrophic O--a visual symbol of wholeness in its circularity--he optatively envisions and prefigures a unitive and democratic future in the face of his nation's dividing crisis.