Possessives

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A grammatical form used to indicate ownership or relationship, typically marked by an apostrophe followed by an 's' for singular nouns or just an apostrophe for plural nouns
2. Referring to the inflection of nouns that denotes possession, often used to show that one entity belongs to another in a sentence
3. The linguistic construction indicating ownership, usually represented by the addition of an apostrophe to a noun, transforming it to convey possession

Etymology: "Possessives" is simply the plural of "possessive," so the word here is the grammatical term for the forms that show ownership, such as "my," "its," and "Mary's." The singular "possessive" comes from Middle French "possessif," which took it from Latin "possessivus," meaning "of or pertaining to possession." That Latin adjective grows from "possessio," "possessing," which itself comes from the verb "possidere," "to possess." The verb is built from "potis," "able" or "master," and "sedere," "to sit," so its older sense was roughly "to sit down upon" or "to hold as one's own." Possession, in other words, began as a physical act of sitting on or occupying a thing.

Synonyms: ownership, proprietorship, claim, possession, entitlement

Antonyms: nonownership, abandonment, renunciation, release, surrender