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evitative

adjective

  1. grammatically expressing the notion that something is avoided or feared: a grammatical mood found in some Australian Aboriginal languages.

    The non-past non-evitative potential corresponds both to the English indicative future and to all imperatives (including jussive and hortatory imperatives); the evitative is used to mark future events that are feared or to be avoided , and corresponds to English "lest..." constructions, except that it is not limited to subordinate clauses.

Where it comes from

From Latin ēvītāre (“to avoid”), from ē- (“out”) + vītāre (“to shun”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry evitative (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← evensongexaugurate →

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