What is "elative"

Elative \E*la"tive\, a. (Gram.) Raised; lifted up; -- a term applied to what is also called the absolute superlative, denoting a high or intense degree of a quality, but not excluding the idea that an equal degree may exist in other cases.

Etymology 1 n. (context grammar English) In Semitic languages, the “adjective of superiority.” In some languages such as Arabic, the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the '''elative'''. How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.” Etymology 2

n. (context grammar English) In Finno-Ugric languages, one of the locative cases, expressing “out of,” as in Finnish talosta, Hungarian házból (“out of the house”). Its opposite is the illative case (“into”). In Finnish, the case form is used also to express "out of" or "proximity" in a figurative sense which in English is often conveyed by the word '''"about"'''.

Elative can refer to:

• Elative case, a grammatical case in, e. g., the Finno-Ugric languages
• Elative (gradation), an inflection used in Arabic for the comparative and superlative
• The absolutive superlative (i. e., a superlative used without any compared object, expressing an intense degree), for example in Latin

In Semitic linguistics, the elative is a stage of gradation in Arabic that can be used both for a superlative and comparative. The Arabic elative has a special inflection similar to that of colour and defect adjectives, though differing in the details. To form an elative, the consonants of the adjective's root are placed in the context ʾaCCaC (or ʾaCaCC if the second and third consonants are the same), which, generally speaking, in most situations inflects for case but not for gender or number. Furthermore, elatives belong to the diptote declension. E.g. ṣaghīr 'small' derives the elative ’aṣghar 'smaller', jadīd 'new' derives ’ajadd 'newer', ghanī 'rich' derives ’aghnā 'richer'.

However, there are several words that have particular feminine and plural forms when the elative is prefixed with the definite article, although the agreement is not always observed in modern usage. The feminine singular in such cases takes the context CuCCā, the masculine plural takes ’aCCaCūna or ’aCāCiC, and the feminine plural takes CuCCayāt or CuCaC. These feminine and plural forms had much more extensive use in ancient poetry. E.g. The adjective kabīr 'big' is changed to ’akbar , kubrā in the feminine singular, ’akābir in the masculine plural and kubrayāt in the feminine plural.

The adjective ’āḫar 'other', as an exception, takes elative forms even though it doesn't have comparative meaning.