a. and sb. [ad. F. limitatif, -ive (16th c. in Hatzf.), ad. med.L. līmitātīvus, f. L. līmitāre to LIMIT: see -ATIVE.]
A. adj.
1. Tending to limit; limiting, restrictive.
† Limitative place: in Scholastic philosophy, ‘place’ in the sense in which it is predicable of things that do not occupy space; = DEFINITIVE a. 3. Limitative judgment (Logic): used by Kant to denote judgments of the type ‘Every A is a not-B,’ which he regarded as a class co-ordinate with affirmative and negative judgments; also occas. used for a judgment serving to limit or modify another.
1530. Rastell, Purgatory, III. xi. § 4. Therfore purgatory can be no place contynentyue but purgatorye maye be a place lymytatyue, and also a place operatyue. For where so euer that god doth lymyt the soule of man after it is separate from the body to be purged, there is ye place lymytatyue of the soule.
1657. J. Sergeant, Schism Dispach’t, 464. Without using the limitative particle (onely) or (alone) to restrain his extravagant interpretation.
1825. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Observ. Peel’s Sp. (1830), 53. Before the words ‘every other country’ stands … the limitative word ‘almost.’
1864. Bowen, Logic, v. 143. The incidental Judgment expressed in an additional word or clause may be either explicative or limitative.
1877. E. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. vi. 307. Nor need Logic regard the infinite or limitative judgment as distinct from the affirmative.
1886. Sat. Rev., 31 July, 151. Their several undertakings should be co-extensive and mutually limitative.
1892. Athenæum, 4 June, 722/3. Being essentially negative and limitative, it can only end in negative conclusions.
† 2. Subject to a limit or condition, conditional.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 67. A prudent Possessor of the Bill will accept of no conditional or limitative Acceptance.
B. sb. Logic. A limitative judgment.
1864. Bowen, Logic, v. 144. In respect to Limitatives, no question can arise concerning the truth or falsity of the incidental Proposition.
