frequentative

Serving to express repetition of an action.

Adjective

  1. Serving to express repetition of an action.
    • "Crackle" is an English frequentative verb derived from "crack".

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰrekʷ-der.? Proto-Italic *frekʷents Latin frequēns Latin frequentāreder. Late Latin frequentātīvusder. Middle English frequentatyf English frequentative Inherited from Middle English frequentatyf, from Late Latin frequentātīvus, from Latin frequentāre (“to do or use often”), from frequēns (“crowded, crammed; frequent, repeated”), from Proto-Italic *frekʷents, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrekʷ- (“to stuff”). By surface analysis, frequent + -ative.

Forms

freq.

Derived

frequentative aspect frequentatively frequentativeness nonfrequentative

Noun

  1. Any of a subclass of imperfective verbs that denote a repeated action, no longer productive in English, but found in e.g. Finnish, Latin, Russian, and Turkish.

Forms

frequentatives freq.

Synonyms

iterative

Related

-er -le