Agentives

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of noun used to indicate someone or something that performs an action or takes on a role
2. Characterizing a grammatical form that denotes the doer of an action, often ending in -er or -or
3. Referring to words that express agency or activeness, typically portraying the subject in a verbal context

Etymology: "Agentives" is the plural of "agentive," an adjective meaning relating to or expressing agency. The word is built from "agent" plus the suffix "-ive," so its heart lies in the Latin verb "agere," "to do" or "to drive," which gave English "agent" through the present participle "agens," "doing" or "acting." In that sense, anything agentive is something that does things. The suffix is where the word's history gets layered. "-ive" passed into English through Old French "-if" from Latin "-īvus," a marker of tendency or capacity, so "agentive" describes something with the disposition to act. The plural form "agentives" simply names the class of such words, mostly used in grammatical discussion.

Synonyms: causatives, agents, initiators, doers, actors