a. [ad. L. translātīv-us pertaining to transfer or translation (see TRANSLATE and -IVE); cf. F. translatif (14th c.) in legal use.] Involving or of the nature of translation (in various senses).
† 1. Involving transference of meaning; metaphorical, tropical. Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. iii. (Arb.), 81. If our feete Poeticall want these qualities it can not be sayd a foote in sence translatiue as here. Ibid., III. xviii. 197. Properly … Allegoria is when we do speake in sence translatiue and wrested from the owne signification.
2. Involving transference from one place to another; in Physics, of the nature of onward movement without rotation or reciprocation.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Wks. (1835), IV. 370. We may improve their fruits without translative conjunction, that is, by insition of the scion upon his own mother.
1740. Stack, in Phil. Trans., XLI. 418. It is allowed, that the translative Velocities of its Points cannot be in an inverted Ratio to the Roots of the Distances.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol. (1877), 27. Watch the Brownian movements; note that they are simply oscillatory—not translative.
1833. Nature, 15 March, 459/1. A screw’s motion, which is partly translative along and partly rotative round a polar axis.
3. Tending or serving to translate or render; relating to translation, translational.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VIII. xi. 62. As the translative impulse (pardon a new word …) came upon me.
1819. G. S. Faber, Dispensations (1823), II. 319. The sense of the Greek translative Diathekè is thus determined by the sense of the Hebrew original Berith.
1882. W. Sharp, Rossetti, iv. 311. Renderings specially admirable for translative excellence and inherent poetic merit.
4. Law. Expressing or constituting transference of property, etc.
1875. Poste, Gaius, III. Comm. (ed. 2), 172. Mancipation … might be used as a formality … of contract either translative or obligative.
5. Gram. (See quot. 1905.)
1895. Edin. Rev., Jan., 84. The student [of Finnish] must remember the nominative, partitive,… prolative, translative, essive … and instructive [cases].
1905. Jespersen, Hist. Eng. Lang., 9. Translative, indicating the state into which anyone or anything passes.
