a. and sb. [ad. L. statīv-us, f. stat- ppl. stem of stāre to stand. Cf. F. † statif (16–17th c.), also G. stativ sb., stand for a telescope, etc.] A. adj.
1. Stationary, fixed, having a permanent situation, a fixed recurring date, or the like. Now only Rom. Ant. in stative camp, etc.
a. 1631. [Sir R. Cotton], Disc. Power Peers, etc. (1640), 2. In the Rolles of Henry the 3. It [Generale Placitum apud London] is not stative, but summoned by Proclamation.
1631. R. Byfield, Doctr. Sabb., 81. Macrobius saith, there are foure kindes of publike holy dayes…, Siative, Conceptive, [etc.].
1816. Scott, Antiq., iv. They are stative forts, whereas this was only an occasional encampment.
1856. Merivale, Rom. Emp., xlv. (1865), V. 338. Rome was the proper sphere of his business and duty,… the stative camp of the warrior nation.
† 2. That stands or continues in a certain state. Obs.
1643. R. O., Man’s Mortality, vi. 47. It incur’d this Absurditie, that the Soules of the Damned shall not perish, but stand as well as the Stative Angels.
3. Hebr. Gram. Epithet of verbs that express a state or condition. [= mod.L. verba stativa.]
1874. A. B. Davidson, Introd. Hebr. Gram., 47. The term stative verbs, i. e. verbs of state, is used by some grammarians. Ibid. The class of stative verbs is very numerous.
1913. C. T. Wood & Lanchester, Hebr. Gram., 69. Stative Verbs are a class of verbs, usually intransitive, which express a state or condition.
B. sb. Hebr. Gram. A stative verb.
1874. Driver, Tenses Hebr., § 11. 12. To the verbs already cited may be added … the following, which are selected from the list given by Böttcher … by this grammarian they are not inaptly termed verba stativa or ‘statives.’
1913. C. T. Wood & Lanchester, Hebr. Gram., 67. Chapter xv. A. Tenses—Perfect Qal—Statives.
Hence Stativity nonce-wd.
1871. Cayley, Math. Papers (1895), VIII. 213. What may be termed the ‘stativity’ of the curve.
