copulative

American  

[kop-yuh-ley-tiv, -luh-tiv] / ˈkɒp yəˌleɪ tɪv, -lə tɪv /

adjective

1. serving to unite or couple.

2. Grammar.

   1. involving or consisting of connected words or clauses.

      a copulative sentence.

   2. pertaining to or serving as a copula; serving to connect subject and complement.

      a copulative verb.

   3. serving to connect nouns, noun phrases, verbs, clauses, etc..

      a copulative conjunction.

   4. of the dvandva type.

      Bittersweet is a copulative compound.

3. of or relating to sexual intercourse.

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noun

1. Grammar. a copulative word.

copulative British  

/ ˈkɒpjʊlətɪv /

adjective

1. serving to join or unite

2. of or characteristic of copulation

3. grammar (of a verb) having the nature of a copula

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Other Word Forms

• copulatively adverb

Etymology

Origin of copulative

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English copulatif, from Middle French copulatif, copulative, from Late Latin cōpulātīvus; copulate, -ive

Example Sentences

These should be followed by the copulative verb; after which should come the intransitive verb and its nominative in the different tenses, and the transitive with its object in the same way.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 10 "David, St" to "Demidov" by Various

“Spirit of the Age”: “He used to plague Fuseli by asking him after the origin of the Teutonic dialects, and Dr. Parr, by wishing to know the meaning of the common copulative, Is.”

From Hazlitt on English Literature An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature by Zeitlin, Jacob

It is well supplied with purely copulative verbs.

From The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages by Williamson, A. W. (Andrew Woods)

In the English Bible this particle is usually rendered by the copulative conjunction and; in the Septuagint, and in Josephus, however, it sometimes has the sense of but.

From The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences by Hitchcock, Edward

The conjunction enunciative copies the partes of a period, and are copulative, as and; connexive, as if; disjunctive, as or; or discretive, as howbe it.

From Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the Schooles by Wheatley, Henry Benjamin