optative verb endings.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

Greek has a particular mood called the optative mood.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2008-12-14] Reference

Thus the importance to it of the subjunctive or optative mood.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy] Reference

Of course, Plato is my man, and I'm told he uses lots of optative.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2005-11-01] Reference

(A sentence is in the optative mood if it expresses a wish or a desire.).    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

And, on the contrary, the optative for the indicative, as (I.v. 388): —.    From Wordnik.com.  [Essays and Miscellanies] Reference

Indeed there is something odd about the very idea of a disguised optative.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

But how can that be if ˜bull-fighting is bad,™ really is in the optative?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

Used in an optative manner the present subjunctive is,in fact,still current e.g.    From Wordnik.com.  [languagehat.com: LEST HE FORGETS.] Reference

˜X is bad™ are really in the optative mood despite their indicative appearances.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

Thus ˜X is good™ would sometimes be a disguised optative and sometimes something else.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

But these verbs express strong wish or desire and by some grammarians are called "optative subjunctives.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition] Reference

Sentences in the optative have fulfillment conditions just as sentences in the indicative have truth-conditions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

One of these was the co-optative power of management, illustrated by such euphemisms as associate and team member.    From Wordnik.com.  [Nickel and Dimed]

Percy Folio, also occurs frequently -- in eleven places, three of which are in optative sentences (8.2, 14.4, 91.4).    From Wordnik.com.  [Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series] Reference

Just as indicative validity can be defined in terms of truth, optative validity can be defined in terms of fulfillment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

Menger, Karl, 1939, "A logic of the doubtful: On optative and imperative logic," in Reports of a Mathematical Colloquium.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mally's Deontic Logic] Reference

Here, the clause in square brackets, which is obviously in the optative mood, infects the entire sentence with its optative character.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell's Moral Philosophy] Reference

Serny's; who, labouring under incipient fever which has not yet tamed them into submission, tell us they would -- optative mood -- be at.    From Wordnik.com.  [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847.] Reference

But the ‘present indicative’ employed not in its regular sense but in that of the old ‘optative’ was no less dear to M. de Norpois.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Sweet Cheat Gone] Reference

Thus much, if it may please your Lordship, was in the optative mood.    From Wordnik.com.  [Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 3] Reference

Outside of Acts the optative with ei is found only in four passages.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Grammar of Septuagint Greek] Reference

In Luke-Acts the optative is commonly employed in dependent questions, e.g.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Grammar of Septuagint Greek] Reference

The optative, as we have seen, has practically vanished from dependent clauses.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Grammar of Septuagint Greek] Reference

W. conceives wrece as optative or hortative, and places a colon before þonne. l.    From Wordnik.com.  [Beowulf] Reference

The verb "let be seen," tera'eh, is an imperfect used as an optative (K.S. 183 b).    From Wordnik.com.  [Exposition of Genesis: Volume 1] Reference

The optative of the 2d aorist has the stem vowel long - does Ps. 84: 7, 120: 3. doe 29 times.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Grammar of Septuagint Greek] Reference

The pure optative is said to occur 35 times in the N.T., always, except in Philemon 20, in the 3d person.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Grammar of Septuagint Greek] Reference

The optative of the verb sharats followed by the cognate object shaerets here must mean: "Let the waters swarm with swarms.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Exposition of Genesis: Volume 1] Reference

'We leave room on every subject for the human or optative part; for it is a part of science to make judicious inquiries and wishes.'.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded] Reference

Or the, indicative in place of the optative, as (I. ii.    From Wordnik.com.  [Essays and Miscellanies] Reference

V.); and "servant of servants shall he be," not in an optative sense may he be.    From Wordnik.com.  [Exposition of Genesis: Volume 1] Reference

38 This seems to be the only possible translation, but the optative is quite anomalous.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Argonautica] Reference

This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may) fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.'.    From Wordnik.com.  [Milton's Comus] Reference