passival

English

noun
Definitions
  • (grammar) An archaic progressive construction in middle voice (syntactically active but semantically passive), replaced by the passive progressive in modern English. For example, "the house is building", "the meal was eating", "the trunks were carrying down" (today "the house is being built", "the meal is being eaten").

Etymology

Suffix from English passive (express the suffering feeling).

Origin

English

passive

Gloss

express the suffering feeling

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms