What is "possessive"

Possessive \Pos*sess"ive\, a. [L. possessivus: cf. F. possessif.] Of or pertaining to possession; having or indicating possession.

Possessive case (Eng. Gram.), the genitive case; the case of nouns and pronouns which expresses ownership, origin, or some possessive relation of one thing to another; as, Homer's admirers; the pear's flavor; the dog's faithfulness.

Possessive pronoun, a pronoun denoting ownership; as, his name; her home; my book.

Possessive \Pos*sess"ive\, n.

1. (Gram.) The possessive case.

2. (Gram.) A possessive pronoun, or a word in the possessive case.

mid-15c. (grammatical, also as a noun); 1550s in general use, from Middle French possessif (15c.) "relating to possession, possessive," and directly from Latin possessivus, from possess-, past participle stem of possidere "to possess" (see possess). Related: Possessively; possessiveness.

a. 1 Of or pertaining to ownership or possession. 2 (context grammar English) Indicating ownership, possession, origin, etc. 3 Unwilling to yield possession of. n. 1 (context grammar English) The possessive case. 2 (context grammar English) A word used to indicate the possessive case.

1. adj. serving to express or indicate possession; "possessive pronouns"; "the genitive endings" [syn: genitive]

2. desirous of owning; "small children are so possessive they will not let others play with their toys"

3. having or showing a desire to control or dominate; "a possessive parent"

A possessive form is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a number of other types of relation to a greater or lesser degree analogous to it.

Most European languages feature possessive forms associated with personal pronouns, like the English my, mine, your, yours, his and so on. There are two main ways in which these can be used (and a variety of terminologies for each):

• Together with a noun, as in my car, your sisters, his boss. Here the possessive form serves as an adjective or determiner, and may be called a possessive adjective, possessive determiner or (adjectival) possessive pronoun.
• Without an accompanying noun, as in mine is red, I prefer yours, this book is his. A possessive used in this way is called a possessive pronoun, or (to distinguish it from the above type, which may also be so named) a substantival possessive pronoun.

Some languages, including English, also have possessive forms derived from nouns or noun phrases, such as Jane's, ''cows' '' and nobody else's. These can be used in the same two ways as the pronoun-derived forms: adjectivally, as in Jane's office; and substantivally, as in that one is Jane's.

Possessives are sometimes regarded as a grammatical case (the possessive case), although they are also sometimes considered to represent the genitive case, or are not assigned to any case, depending on which language is being considered. On the other hand, some languages, such as the Cariban languages, can be said to have a possessed case, used to indicate the other party (the thing possessed) in a possession relationship. A similar feature found in some languages is the possessive affix, usually a suffix, added to the (possessed) noun to indicate the possessor, as in the Finnish taloni ("my house"), where talo means "house" and the suffix -ni means "my".

The glossing abbreviation or may be used to indicate possessive forms.

In linguistics, a possessive is a word or construction that indicates possession or similar relationship.

See also:

• Possession (linguistics), for the relationships indicated by grammatical possessives
• Possessive case, a grammatical case used in possessive constructions in some languages
• Possessive determiner (or possessive adjective), a word modifying nouns in possessive constructions, such as my, their
• Possessive pronoun, a word used independently in possessive constructions, such as mine, theirs
• Possessive affix, a prefix or suffix used added to a word in some languages to indicate the possessor
• English possessive, the above forms as found in the English language

For possessive behavior in a human relationship, see Attachment in adults.