passival
An archaic progressive construction in middle voice, replaced by the passive…An archaic progressive construction in middle voice (syntactically active but semantically passive), replaced by the passive progressive in modern English. For example, "the house is building", "the meal was eating", "the trunks were carrying down" (today "the house is being built", "the meal is being eaten").
Meaning
1 sensesAn archaic progressive construction in middle voice (syntactically active but semantically passive), replaced by the passive progressive in modern English. For example, "the house is building", "the meal was eating", "the trunks were carrying down" (today "the house is being built", "the meal is being eaten").
Origin
Probably from Classical Latin passīvus + -al, after adjectival, nominal, etc. By surface aProbably from Classical Latin passīvus + -al, after adjectival, nominal, etc. By surface analysis, passive (noun) + -al.
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