a. Chiefly Gram. [f. prec. + -AL.] Of, pertaining to, or forming a termination or terminations; closing, final (quot. 1874).
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 347. We seem to have the three great principles of accentuation; namely, the radical, the terminational, and the distinctive.
1861. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., I. 33. It expressed the relations of nouns and verbs … by terminational or other modifications.
1864. W. P. Dickson, trans. Mommsen’s Hist. Rome (ed. 2), I. I. ii. 12–3. The richer terminational system of the Greeks along with the augment enables them for the most part to dispense with auxiliary verbs.
1874. T. Hardy, Far fr. Madding Crowd, vi. His superiority was marked enough to lead several ruddy peasants … to speak to him inquiringly,… and to use ‘Sir’ as a terminational word.
