ablative absolute

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin ablativus absolutus.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæb.lə.tɪv æb.soʊˈlut/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈæb.lə.tɪv æb.səˈlut/

Noun

ablative absolute (plural ablatives absolute or ablative absolutes)

1. (grammar) A construction in Latin and other sister languages in which an independent phrase with a noun in the ablative case has a participle, adjective, or noun, expressed or implied, which agrees with it in gender, number and case – both words forming a clause grammatically unconnected with the rest of the sentence.

Examples
Tarquiniō rēgnante, Pȳthagorās vēnit. Tarquin reigning (or: In Tarquin’s reign), Pythagoras came. cibō bonō, bene ēdērunt. The food being good, they ate well.

Translations

linguistic construction in Latin

• Dutch: losse ablatief
• Esperanto: ablativo absoluta
• Finnish: ablatiivinen absoluutti
• French: ablatif absolu (fr) m
• German: Ablativus absolutus (de)
• Hungarian: ablativus absolutus
• Italian: ablativo assoluto (it) m
• Portuguese: ablativo absoluto m
• Romanian: ablativ absolut (ro)
• Sicilian: ablativu assulutu m
• Spanish: ablativo absoluto
• Telugu: సతిసప్తమి (te) (satisaptami)

See also

• dangling participle
• genitive absolute
• free adjunct
• nominative absolute

Further reading

• Bauer, Brigitte (2000) Archaic Syntax in Indo-European, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, pages 261–333