accusative

English

Etymology

First attested in the mid 15th century. From Middle English accusative, from Anglo-Norman accusatif or Middle French acusatif or from Latin accūsātīvus (“having been blamed”), from accūsō (“to blame”). Equivalent to accuse ‎ -ative. The Latin form is a mistranslation of the Ancient Greek grammatical term αἰτιᾱτική (aitiātikḗ, “expressing an effect”). This term actually comes from αἰτιᾱτός (aitiātós, “caused”) ‎ -ῐκός (-ikós, adjective suffix), but was reanalyzed as coming from αἰτιᾱ- (aitiā-), the stem of the verb αἰτιάομαι (aitiáomai, “to blame”), -τῐκός (-tikós, verbal adjective suffix).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈkjuːzətɪv/
• (US) enPR: əkū'zətĭv, IPA^(key): /əˈkjuzətɪv/
• Hyphenation: ac‧cusa‧tive

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

accusative (comparative more accusative, superlative most accusative)

1. Producing accusations; in a manner that reflects a finding of fault or blame

   Synonyms: accusatory, accusatorial

   • 1641 November 22, Edward Dering, a speech:

     This hath been a very accusative age.

   • 1984 April 14, William F. Orrell, “Bad Business”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

     The proprietor of the store was rude, insulting and accusative.

2. (grammar) Applied to the case (as the fourth case of Latin, Lithuanian and Greek nouns) which expresses the immediate object on which the action or influence of a transitive verb has its limited influence. Other parts of speech, including secondary or predicate direct objects, will also influence a sentence’s construction. In German the case used for direct objects.

Derived terms

• accusatively
• accusativeness
• accusativity
• nominoaccusative
• nonaccusative
• unaccusative
• unaccusativity

 

Translations

producing accusations; accusatory

• Armenian: մեղադրական (hy) (meġadrakan)
• Catalan: acusatiu (ca)
• Dutch: beschuldigend (nl)
• Esperanto: akuza
• Finnish: syyttävä (fi), syyttelevä
• French: accusateur (fr)
• Hungarian: vádaskodó
• Icelandic: ásakandi (is)
• Japanese: 非難を表す (hinan wo arawasu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: anklagende

• Portuguese: acusativo (pt), acusatório
• Romanian: acuzator (ro), acuzativ (ro)
• Russian: обвини́тельный (ru) (obvinítelʹnyj)
• Spanish: acusativo (es)
• Turkish: suçlayıcı
• Welsh: cyhuddgar, cyhuddol

related to accusative case

• Arabic: مَنْصُوب (manṣūb)
• Armenian: հայցական (hy) (haycʻakan)
• Azerbaijani: təsirlik hal
• Belarusian: вінава́льны (vinaválʹny)
• Bulgarian: вини́телен (vinítelen)
• Catalan: acusatiu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宾格 (zh) (bīngé), 對格／对格 (zh), 受格 (zh)

• Dutch: accusatief (nl)
• Esperanto: akuzativa
• Estonian: sihitav, akusatiiv (et)
• Finnish: akkusatiivi- (fi)
• French: accusatif (fr)
• Georgian: ბრალდებითი (braldebiti)
• German: Akkusativ- (de), akkusativisch (de)
• Greek: αιτιατική (el) f (aitiatikí)

  Ancient: αἰτιατική (aitiatikḗ)

• Hungarian: tárgyesetben lévő/álló
• Indonesian: akusatif (id)
• Icelandic: þolfalls- (is)
• Irish: áinsíoch (ga), cuspóireach
• Japanese: 対格の (たいかくの, taikaku no)
• Latin: accūsātīvus
• Latvian: akuzatīvs (lv) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: akkusativisk

  Nynorsk: akkusativisk

• Old English: wrēġendlīċ
• Polish: biernikowy (pl)
• Portuguese: acusativo (pt)
• Russian: вини́тельный (ru) (vinítelʹnyj)
• Slovene: tožilniški
• Spanish: acusativo (es)
• Swedish: ackusativ (sv)
• Turkish: belirtme (tr) (hâli/durumu), -i hâli (tr), aküzatif
• Ukrainian: знахі́дний (uk) (znaxídnyj)
• Welsh: gwrthrychol (cy)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} accusatif (fr)
• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} יחס הפעול (yakhas ha-pa’ul)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} accusative (ia)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} accusativo (it)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} ackusativ (sv)

Noun

accusative (plural accusatives)

1. (grammar) The accusative case.
2. (grammar) A word inflected in the accusative case.
   • 1911, Hans Reichelt, Avesta Reader: Texts, Notes, Glossary and Index, Strassburg [Strasbourg]: Verlag von Karl J. Trübner, page 105:

     65 mošu tat̰ ās nōit̮ darəγəm yat̰ . . ‘quickly it (tat̰) happened, it (was) not long till . . . — drūm avantəm airištəm: according to Bartholomae IF. 12. 146 the author of this part was led to use accusatives here (instead of nominatives) by the preceding sentence yezi ǰum frapayeni.

   • 1944, W[illiam] F[rancis] Jackson Knight, “Language, Verse, and Style”, in Roman Vergil (Peregrine Books), Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1966, page 265:

     There is some antecedent in old Latin; but as usual the influence is Greek too, for Greek prose and poetry freely use accusatives which are to some extent adverbial accusatives, or accusatives of respect.

   • 2000, Mily Crevels, Peter Bakker, “External Possession in Romani”, in Viktor Elšík, Yaron Matras, editors, Grammatical Relations in Romani: The Noun Phrase (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science: Series IV – Current Issues in Linguistic Theory; 211), Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 181:

     Romani distinguishes dative and accusative pronouns formally and some Romani dialects use accusatives in constructions in which other languages employ a dative.

Synonyms

• (accusative case): acc., A.

Derived terms

• accusative absolute
• accusative cognate
• adverbial accusative
• cognate accusative
• genitive-accusative

 

Translations

accusative case

• Albanian: kallëzore (sq) f
• Arabic: مَنْصُوب m (manṣūb)
• Armenian: հայցական (hy) (haycʻakan), հայցական հոլով (hy) (haycʻakan holov)
• Asturian: acusativu m
• Belarusian: вінава́льны склон m (vinaválʹny sklon), вінава́льны m (vinaválʹny)
• Bengali: কর্ম কারক m (kormo karok)
• Bulgarian: винителен падеж m (vinitelen padež)
• Carpathian Rusyn: акузатів m (akuzativ)
• Catalan: acusatiu (ca) m, cas acusatiu m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宾格 (zh) (bīngé), 對格／对格 (zh) (duìgé), 受格 (zh) (shòugé), 第四格 (dìsìgé) (esp. for German)

• Czech: čtvrtý pád m, akuzativ (cs) m
• Danish: akkusativ (da)
• Dutch: accusatief (nl) m, vierde naamval (nl) m
• Esperanto: akuzativo (eo)
• Faroese: hvønnfall (fo) n
• Finnish: akkusatiivi (fi), kohdanto (fi)
• French: accusatif (fr) m, cas accusatif m
• Galician: acusativo (gl) m
• Georgian: ბრალდებითი ბრუნვა (braldebiti brunva), აკუზატივი (aḳuzaṭivi)
• German: Akkusativ (de) m, Wenfall (de) m, vierter Fall m
• Greek: αιτιατική (el) f (aitiatikí)

  Ancient: αἰτιατική f (aitiatikḗ)

• Hebrew: יחס הפעול m (yakhas ha-pa’ul)
• Hindi: द्वितीया विभक्ति f (dvitīyā vibhakti)
• Hungarian: tárgyeset (hu), accusativus (hu)
• Icelandic: þolfall (is) n
• Ingrian: akkusativa
• Interlingua: accusativo (ia)
• Irish: áinsí m

  Old Irish: áinsid m

• Italian: accusativo (it) m
• Japanese: 対格 (ja) (たいかく, taikaku), ４格 (よんかく, yonkaku) (esp. for German)
• Kashubian: winowôcz (csb) m, akùzatiw (csb) m
• Kazakh: табыс септік (tabys septık)
• Korean: 대격 (ko) (daegyeok)
• Latin: casus accusativus m, incūsātīvus
• Lithuanian: galininkas (lt) m
• Malayalam: പ്രതിഗ്രാഹിക (ml) (pratigrāhika)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: заахын тийн ялгал (zaaxyn tiin jalgal), заах тийн ялгал (zaax tiin jalgal)

  Mongolian: ᠵᠢᠭᠠᠬᠤ ᠶᠢᠨ
  ᠲᠡᠶᠢᠨ
  ᠢᠯᠭᠠᠯ (ǰiɣaqu-yin teyin ilɣal), ᠵᠢᠭᠠᠬᠤ
  ᠲᠡᠶᠢᠨ
  ᠢᠯᠭᠠᠯ (ǰiɣaqu teyin ilɣal)

• Northern Sami: akkusatiiva
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: akkusativ (no) m

  Nynorsk: akkusativ (nn) m, underfall n

• Old English: wregendlic casus
• Polish: biernik (pl) m inan, akuzatyw (pl) m, accusativus (pl) m, akuzatiwus (pl) m
• Portuguese: acusativo (pt) m
• Romanian: acuzativ (ro) n, caz acuzativ n
• Russian: вини́тельный паде́ж (ru) m (vinítelʹnyj padéž)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: акузатив m

  Roman: akuzativ (sh) m

• Slovak: akuzatív (sk) m, štvrtý pád m
• Slovene: tožilnik (sl) m
• Spanish: acusativo (es) m, caso acusativo m
• Swedish: ackusativ (sv) c
• Tamil: இரண்டாம் வேற்றுமை (ta) (iraṇṭām vēṟṟumai)
• Telugu: ద్వితీయా విభక్తి (te) (dvitīyā vibhakti)
• Thai: กรรมการก (th) (gam-má-gaa-rók)
• Ukrainian: знахі́дний відмі́нок m (znaxídnyj vidmínok), знахі́дний (uk) m (znaxídnyj)
• Uyghur: چۈشۈم كېلىش (chüshüm këlish)
• Vietnamese: đối cách
• Volapük: kimifal, kusatif (vo)
• Welsh: gwrthrychol (cy) m
• West Frisian: hwaenfal, 4e fal, akkusatyf (fy)

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

accusative

1. feminine singular of accusatif

Latin

Noun

accūsātīve

1. vocative singular of accūsātīvus