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Origin and history of sputative

sputative(adj.)

"given to excessive spitting," 1630s, with -ive + stem of Latin sputare "to spit out, spit at," a derivative of spuere "to spit" (see spew (v.)).

also from 1630s

Entries linking to sputative

spew(v.)

Middle English speuen, "vomit, throw up, spit or cough up," also figurative, from Old English spiwan "spew, spit," from Proto-Germanic *spiewan- (source also of Old Saxon spiwan, Old Norse spyja, Old Frisian spiwa, Middle Dutch spijen, Dutch spuwen, Old High German spiwan, German speien, Gothic spiewan "to spit"), probably of imitative origin (compare Latin spuere; Greek ptuein, Doric psyttein; Old Church Slavonic pljuja, Russian plevati; Lithuanian spiauti).

Also in Old English as a weak verb, speowan, spiwian; the weak form predominated from Middle English. The general sense of "eject or cast out as if by vomiting" is by 1590s. The intransitive sense is by 1660s. Related: Spewed; spewing.

-ive

word-forming element making adjectives from verbs, meaning "pertaining to, tending to; doing, serving to do," in some cases from Old French -if, but usually directly from Latin adjectival suffix -ivus (source also of Italian and Spanish -ivo). In some words borrowed from French at an early date it has been reduced to -y (as in hasty, tardy).

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