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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dative

Dative \Da"tive\, n. [L. dativus.] The dative case. See Dative, a., 1.

Dative

Dative \Da"tive\, a. [L. dativus appropriate to giving, fr. dare to give. See 2d Date.]

  1. (Gram.) Noting the case of a noun which expresses the remoter object, and is generally indicated in English by to or for with the objective.

  2. (Law)

    1. In one's gift; capable of being disposed of at will and pleasure, as an office.

    2. Removable, as distinguished from perpetual; -- said of an officer.

    3. Given by a magistrate, as distinguished from being cast upon a party by the law.
      --Burril. Bouvier.

      Dative executor, one appointed by the judge of probate, his office answering to that of an administrator.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
dative

mid-15c., from Latin dativus "pertaining to giving," from datus "given" (see date (n.1)); in grammatical use from Greek dotike (ptosis) "dative (case)," from dotikos "of giving nature," from dotos "given," from PIE root *do- "to give," from the same PIE root as the Latin word. In law, "that may be disposed of at pleasure," from 1530s. Typically the case of the indirect object, but sometimes also denoting "motion toward." In old Germanic languages, the "fourth case," catch-all for Indo-European dative, ablative, locative, and other cases.

Wiktionary
dative

a. 1 (context grammar English) Noting the case of a noun which expresses the remoter or indirect object, generally indicated in English by ''to'' or ''for'' with the objective. 2 (context obsolete legal English) In one’s gift; capable of being disposed of at will and pleasure, as an office or other privilege. 3 (context obsolete legal English) Removable, as distinguished from perpetual; — said of an officer. 4 (context obsolete legal English) Given by a judge, as distinguished from being cast upon a party by the law itself 5 (context science English) Formed by two electrons contributed by one atom; see dative bond. n. (context grammar English) The dative case.

WordNet
dative

n. the category of nouns serving as the indirect object of a verb [syn: dative case]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "dative".

In the dative case only the accents over the penult have any significance.

But before discussing how dative forms are constructed, let us have a closer look on indirect objects.

However, what has already turned up is evidence for another system, and since this system yields less ambiguous forms, it is certainly the system I would recommend to writers anyhow: Independent possessive pronouns can be derived by adding the adjectival ending -ya to the corresponding dative forms!

The remaining cases, in addition to the nominative, are the genitive, the possessive, the dative, the allative, the ablative, the locative, and the instrumental.

NOTE: In the keys to this exercise, the following simplified "equivalents" are used: genitives and possessive-adjectival forms are all turned into "of"-constructions, dative forms are represented as prepositional phrases in "for", whereas allative and ablative forms are represented as phrases involving the prepositions "to" and "from", respectively.

Translate into single Quenya words ("of" = genitive or possessive as further specified, "for" = dative, "to" = allative, "from" = ablative): a) To your hills b) For our (excl.

Then any case endings would presumably also be dual: dative ment, allative menta, ablative melto, instrumental menten.

Notice that "to our world" should in this context be a dative rather than an allative form.

In the Plotz Letter, Tolkien listed various case endings also including the dual element -t-: genitive -to, dative -nt, allative -nta, ablative -lto, locative -tsë, instrumental -nten.

Thus, starting from the simple nominative ciryat "two ships, a couple of ships": ciryat + -o for genitive = ciryato ciryat + -n for dative = ciryatn ciryat + -nna for allative = ciryatnna, simplified to ciryatna ciryat + -llo for ablative = ciryatllo, simplified to ciryatlo ciryat + -ssë for locative = ciryatssë, simplified to ciryatsë ciryat + -nen for instrumental = ciryatnen However, the group tn came to be disliked, so the consonants underwent metathesis.

Thus the dative ciryatn, the allative ciryatna and the instrumental ciryatnen turn into the actual forms listed in Plotz: ciryant, ciryanta, ciryanten.

If this is so, we have every reason to assume that the same case endings were suffixed to dual forms in -u as well, for instance like this (using Aldu "Two Trees" as our standard example): Aldu + -o for genitive = Alduo Aldu + -n for dative = Aldun Aldu + -nna for allative = Aldunna Aldu + -llo for ablative = Aldullo Aldu + -ssë for locative = Aldussë Aldu + -nen for instrumental = Aldunen These forms would undergo no further changes, since they are all acceptable Quenya as far as phonology goes.