demonstrative

From Middle English demonstratif, from Middle French démonstratif; equivalent to demonstrate +‎ -ive.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmɒnstɹətɪv/, (nonstandard) /ˈdɛmənstɹeɪtɪv/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmɑnstɹətɪv/, /dəˈmɑnstɹətɪv/, (nonstandard) /ˈdɛmənstɹeɪtɪv/

demonstrative (comparative more demonstrative, superlative most demonstrative)

1. that serves to demonstrate, show or prove
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     an argument necessary and demonstrative

2. given to open displays of emotion
   • 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres:

     demonstrative eloquence

   • 1865, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter III:

     He had rather a contempt for demonstrative people, arising from his medical insight into the consequences to health of uncontrolled feeling.

3. (grammar) that specifies the thing or person referred to

• demonstrable

• performative

demonstrative (plural demonstratives)

1. (grammar) A demonstrative word
   1. A demonstrative adjective.
   2. A demonstrative pronoun.

• pronoun demonstrative

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demonstrative

1. inflection of demonstrativ:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

dēmōnstrātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of dēmōnstrātīvus

• “demonstrative”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• demonstrative in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.