English
indicative
Indicative comes from Late Latin indicātīvus, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- ‘to point out, to show’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deyḱ-‘to point out, to show’root as named · steps between not traced
- Late Latinmodernindicātīvus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600indicatif
- Englishearliest quotation 2018indicative
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deyḱ-‘to point out, to show’root as named · steps between not traced
- Late Latinmodernindicātīvus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600indicatif
- Englishearliest quotation 2018indicative
Earliest quotation: 2018, James Lambert, Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles: “The fact that imperative forms were taken into English…”
Equivalent to indicate + -ive
Latin dicō ‘to declare, (originally) to point’
Latin indicō ‘to point out, indicate’
Latin indicātus ‘indicated, pointed out’
English indicate
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- ‘to point out, to show’
teach, index, toe, token, predict, dictionary, digit, paradigm, addict, contradictory, dictator, ditto, dictate, contradiction, contradict, syndicate, ditty, predicate, diction, dictum, tache, interdict, dict, syndicalism, 47 more
Today it means
adj Serving as a sign, indication or suggestion of something.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- / indicative