Etymology

operative

O1P3E1R1A1T1I1V4E1

Today it means: Effectual or important. Full definition →

Middle English operative ← Middle French operatif ← Latin operātīvus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromoperātīvus
  2. Middle French · derived fromoperatif
  3. Middle English · inherited fromoperative
  4. English todayoperative

From Middle English operative, operatyfe, from Middle French operatif (modern French opératif) or its etymon Latin operātīvus. By surface analysis, operate + -ive.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.