a. Also 5 -ife. [a. F. causatif, ad. L. causātīvus; see CAUSE v. and -IVE.]
1. Effective as a cause, productive of (an effect).
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 3848. It of his dethe was verray causatife.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IX. xxvii. 255. The Proces Causative That eftyr folowit effective.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. viii. § 1. That, that is causative in nature of a number of effects.
1830. Coleridge, Rem. (1836), III. 1. That which is essentially causative of all being must be causative of its own.
1877. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. II. 321. A superhuman causative agency.
b. ellipt. Of causation, of the existence of a causative agency.
1842. W. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 6), 9. Hypothetical currents were supposed, for the purpose of carrying out the causative view.
2. Gram. Expressing a cause or causation; = CAUSAL 4. Also as sb., a causative word.
c. 1600. Swinburne, Spousals (1686), 149. These words … are to be understood causative.
1750–1. Student, II. 307–8 (T.). Let any Hebrew reader judge, whether pihel can properly be said, in general, to augment the signification, or hiphel to be causative, &c.
1824. J. Gilchrist, Etymol. Interp., 150. Lay is manifestly the causative of Lie.
1879. Whitney, Skr. Gram., § 540. The secondary or derivative conjugations are … the passive, the intensive, the desiderative, the causative. Ibid., 607. This stem … has to a great extent a causative value.
Hence Causativeness, Causativity, the fact of being causative, causative quality.
1846. O. Brownson, Wks., VI. 107. He is the causativeness of all and of each.
1856. J. H. Newman, Callista, 67. The egg comes first in relation to the causativity of the chick, and the chick comes first in relation to the causativity of the egg.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 208. Its causativity is accounted for by erroneous imputation.
