accusativus cum infinitivo

noun

A syntactic construction, very common in Classical Latin, in which the subject of a subordinate clause is declined for the accusative case and the verb is conjugated for the infinitive mood, used chiefly to express indirect statements.

Meanings

nounaccusativus cum infinitivo (usually uncountable, plural accusativi cum infinitivis)

plural accusativi cum infinitivis · alternative ACI

  1. uncountableusuallygrammarA syntactic construction, very common in Classical Latin, in which the subject of a subordinate clause is declined for the accusative case and the verb is conjugated for the infinitive mood, used chiefly to express indirect statements.

    Thus we must differentiate between the accusativi cum infinitivis after the two groups of verbs already on account of this, although this has not been thought necessary by anybody so far.

    ibidem, page 11
    3 more examples

    A historico-typological analysis of Greek and Latin infinitival structures, and that of Greek and Latin accusativi cum infinitivis, and nominativi cum infinitivis does not only mean the clearer understanding of the syntactical system of the languages concerned, but it can also elucidate the emergence and the development of these structures.

    1972, Annales Universitatis Scientiarum Budapestinensis de Rolando Eötvös Nominatae: Sectio Classica, volume I, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, page 9

    In all these occurrences, after the clause ἔδοξεν tῲ dήμῳ (lʿ m ṣdnm tm), we find a nominal clause without a verbal subject; in these instances the accusativi cum infinitivis which give the detailed content of the decree are to be seen […]

    1982, Haiim B. Rosén, East and West: Selected Writings in Linguistics, part one: General and Indo-European Linguistics, Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag (10) (13), page 427

    Not only are all the verbs in the infinitive, since these sentences are, from a syntactical point of view, accusativi cum infinitivis, but also the continuation of the sentence comes in the words ʿ ṭrt ḥrṣ after a long parenthesis; both of these constructions are completely foreign to the nature of Semitic paratactic syntax.

    ibidem, page 428

Origin

  1. Latinaccūsātīvus cum īnfīnītīvō
  2. Englishaccusativus cum infinitivo

Learned borrowing from Latin accūsātīvus cum īnfīnītīvō (literally “accusative [case] with infinitive [mood]”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Icelandic þolfall með nafnhætti
  • þolfall með nafnhættiaccusative–infinitive construction used to express indirect statements
Cite this entry
APA

accusativus cum infinitivo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accusativus%20cum%20infinitivo

MLA

“accusativus cum infinitivo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accusativus%20cum%20infinitivo. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “accusativus cum infinitivo,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accusativus%20cum%20infinitivo.

Source: accusativus cum infinitivo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.