purposive
English
Etymology
From purpose + -ive. Compare purpositive.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈpəːpəsɪv/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈpɚpəsɪv/
Adjective
purposive (comparative more purposive, superlative most purposive)
- Serving a particular purpose; adapted to a given purpose, especially through natural evolution. [from 19th c.]
- 1918, Algernon Blackwood, The Garden of Survival, London: Macmillan, Chapter 9, p. 142,[1]
- Irresistably it came to me again that beauty, far from being wasted, was purposive, that this purpose was of a redeeming kind, and that some one who was pleased co-operated with it for my personal benefit.
- 1918, Algernon Blackwood, The Garden of Survival, London: Macmillan, Chapter 9, p. 142,[1]
- Done or performed with a conscious purpose or intent. [from 19th c.]
- Synonyms: deliberate, intentional, purposeful
- 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Secker & Warburg, “Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak,”[2]
- It would have been quite impossible to use the A vocabulary for literary purposes or for political or philosophical discussion. It was intended only to express simple, purposive thoughts, usually involving concrete objects or physical actions.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 191:
- Other ecclesiastics [...] were similarly accepting of a space for purposive and beneficent human action and betterment in a disenchanted world.
- (psychology) Pertaining to purpose, as reflected in behaviour or mental activity. [from 19th c.]
- 1920, D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love, London: Martin Secker, 1921, Chapter 29, p. 430,[3]
- Ursula could not believe the air in her nostrils. It seemed conscious, malevolent, purposive in its intense murderous coldness.
- 1964, C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 5, p. 93,[4]
- The question at once arises whether medieval thinkers really believed that what we now call inanimate objects were sentient and purposive.
- 1920, D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love, London: Martin Secker, 1921, Chapter 29, p. 430,[3]
- Pertaining to or demonstrating purpose. [from 19th c.]
- 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 78:
- The world was generally agreed to be a purposive one, responsive to the wishes of its Creator […].
- 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 78:
- Possessed of a firm purpose. [from 20th c.]
- Synonyms: determined, resolute
- 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Part One, 1.15, p. 45,[5]
- Whenever she opened a scientific book and saw whole paragraphs of incomprehensible words and symbols, she felt a sense of wonder at the great territories of learning that lay beyond her—the sum of so many noble and purposive attempts to make objective sense of the world.
- (grammar) Of a clause or conjunction: expressing purpose. [from 20th c.]
- 2004, Olga Fischer et al., The Syntax of Early English, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 7, p. 212,
- Many scholars suggest that […] the increase in the use of the to-infinitive in Middle English took place at the expense of the bare infinitive (i.e. an infinitive without the marker to). […] due to the loss of verbal inflections, it became difficult to distinguish the infinitival form from other verbal forms. As a result […] to began to function as a mere marker of the infinitive, losing its original ‘purposive’ sense […]
- 2004, Olga Fischer et al., The Syntax of Early English, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 7, p. 212,
Usage notes
- Objects: behavior, action, interpretation, sample, etc.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
expressing purpose (grammar)
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