a. and sb. [ad. L. *locātīv-us, f. locāt-, locāre to LOCATE: see -IVE.]
A. adj. Pertaining to location.
1. Gram. The name of the particular case-form which denotes place where; e.g., L. domī = at home. Also, pertaining to this case.
1841. H. H. Wilson, Skr. Gram., 33. The termination of the locative case.
1862. T. Clark, Compar. Gram., 114. This view of the Locative origin of the Latin Genitive in the second declension.
1894. W. M. Lindsay, Lat. Lang., ix. § 5. Locative Adverb-forms. Ibid., 560. The adverbial Locative cases of Nouns in common use, hŭmī, dŏmī, militiæ, &c.
2. Pertaining to appointment to offices.
1816. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Extract Const. Code (1830), 53. Of the locative function, the mode of exercise is as follows.
3. Serving to locate or fix the position of something.
1817. Chief Justice Marshall, in H. Wheaton, Rep., II. 211. Entries made in a wilderness would most generally refer to some prominent and notorious object which might direct the attention to the neighbourhood in which the land was placed; and then to some particular object which should exactly describe it. The first of these has been denominated the general or descriptive call, and the last the particular or locative call, of the entry. Ibid. If, after having reached the neighbourhood, the locative object cannot be found within the limits of the descriptive call, the entry is equally defective.
B. sb. Gram. The locative case.
1804. W. Carey, Skr. Gram., II. i. 35. There are seven Cases, viz. the Nominative, Accusative, Instrumental, Dative, Ablative, Possessive, and Locative.
1859. Max Müller, Sci. Lang., vi. (1861), 206. There was originally in all the Aryan languages a case expressive of locality, which grammarians call the locative.
1867. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., IV. iv. 214. The ordinary sign of the locative (which in Sanscrit and Zend is -i) was in the old Persian -ya or -iya.
1888. King & Cookson, Sounds & Inflex. Grk. & Lat., xii. 341. The adverbs in -ē were originally locatives.