Dictionary

portentive en · ADJ

Etymology

From portent + -ive.

Meanings

1. portentous; prophetic; acting as a presage.
   • The raven, from a neighbouring oak, responded the portentive croak. 1803, James Thomson, Winifred, a tale of wonder, page 141:
   • The growing use of cement during the city's florrescence was innovative and extraordinarily portentive of modern engineering skills. 1990, Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries, page 159:
   • Astrological calculations of nativities, lucky and unlucky days and seasons, are by some regarded, and even moles on the surface of the skin are thought to be portentive of good or bad fortune. 1836, Ethan Allen, Reason, the Only Oracle of Man, page 44:
2. Indicating that something is likely to happen in the future.
   • The potential portentive forms, consisting of the potential stem plus the post-clitic -noko, occur with a further post-cliticised contracted form of ylvk 'having said', the perfect participle of 'say', in a clause of negative purpose. 1981, H. Myron Bromley, A Grammar of Lower Grand Valley Dani, page 246:

Forms