ablative

Meanings

Adjective

• Applied to one of the cases of the noun in some languages, the fundamental meaning of the case being removal, separation, or taking away, and to a lesser degree, instrument, place, accordance, specifications, price, or measurement.
• Pertaining to taking away or removing.
• Sacrificial, wearing away or being destroyed in order to protect the underlying, as in ablative paints used for antifouling. .
• Relating to the removal of a body part, tumor, or organ.
• Relating to the erosion of a land mass; relating to the melting or evaporation of a glacier.

Noun

• The ablative case.
• An ablative material.

Origin

• From Middle English ablative, ablatife, ablatyf, ablatif, from Old French ablatif, from Latin ablātīvus, from ablātus, from auferō. The engineering/nautical sense originates from ablate + -ive.