Dictionary

persistive en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /pə(ɹ)ˈsɪstɪv/

Etymology

From persist + -ive.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) persistent
   • Do you with cheekes abash'd, behold our workes, And thinke them shame, which are (indeed) nought else But the protractiue trials of great Ioue, To finde persistiue constancie in men? c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
   • It should further be observed, that this order of spasm is very persistive, sometimes continuing even after apparent death[…] 1858, Alva Curtis, A Synopsis of Lectures on Medical Science:
2. Indicating a situation that was the case at one time (usually past) and continues to a later time (usually time of speaking).
   • The present paper looks at so-called persistive markers (denoting something like “still going on”) in the sub-Saharan Bantu languages, one of the major subgroups of the Niger-Congo language phylum. 2008, Jouni Filip Maho, “Comparative TAM morphology in Niger-Congo”, in Folke Josephson, Ingmar Söhrman, editors, Interdependence of Diachronic and Synchronic Analyses:
   • Persistive aspect is marked with a post-initial prefix shí-. Its high tone does not surface when combined with a construction that uses melodic tone 4 2022, Hilde Gunnink, A grammar of Fwe:

Forms

Deriveds

persistively · persistiveness · persistive vegetative state