a. and sb. [ad. L. continuātīv-us, f. ppl. stem of continuāre to CONTINUE: see -IVE.]
A. adj. 1. Tending or serving to continue or impart continuity: † of material substance (obs.); of existence, action, etc.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., IX. 330. The Cure of the Fissure of the Lips consists in … restoring the continuative moisture.
1865. W. Kay, Crisis Hupfeldiana, 52. Now, this is a continuative way of speaking.
1871. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue, § 594. Logic … is not originative and creative; it is only regulative and continuative.
2. Expressing continuance: see B. 1.
B. sb. (the adj. used absol.) Anything that serves to continue or produce continuity: spec.
† a. A conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause or sentence; a subordinative conjunction. Also a form of the verb expressing continuance of action in some languages.
1530. Palsgr., 148. Some [conjunctions] be continuatives.
1751. Harris, Hermes (1841), 187. The continuatives are ‘if,’ ‘because,’ ‘therefore,’ ‘that,’ &c… The copulative does no more than barely couple sentences … Continuatives … by a more intimate connection, consolidate sentences into one continuous whole. Ibid., ii. (1786), 247. All these continuatives are resolvable into copulatives.
1870. F. Hall, Hindî Reader, 146. A few intensives and continuatives are formed by annexing [etc.].
† b. A proposition expressing continuance. Obs.
1725. Watts, Logic, II. ii. § 6. [Among] the second sort of compound Propositions … may be added continuatives; as, Rome remains to this day; which includes, at least, two propositions, viz. Rome was, and Rome is.
Hence Continuatively adv.; Continuativeness, the quality of being continuative; persistency in attention or effort.
1881. Daily Tel., 10 Nov., 2/3. The outward signs of firmness, ambition, and concentration or continuativeness.
