ODLT--The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology



ablative case
Definition - A case that is used in Latin and other Indo-European languages to indicate motion away from something.

Example -
In the Latin phrase ex agrīs, from the country, the noun agrīs is in the ablative case.

Etymology -
The word derives from the Latin (casus) ablativus, (case) of removal. The Latin term was coined by Julius Caesar.

Oxford English Dictionary -
Its first citation is from circa 1440:
"The vjt. case is ablatif case, and are they that stelyn and leuyn on oþer mennes goodes."
(Gesta Rom. (1879) 418)



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