Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Appointed to office.
  • adjective Nominated as a candidate for office.
  • adjective Having or bearing a person's name.
  • adjective Grammar Of, relating to, or being the case of the subject of a finite verb (as I in I wrote the letter) and of words identified with the subject of a copula, such as a predicate nominative (as children in These are his children).
  • noun The nominative case.
  • noun A word or form in the nominative case.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Noting the subject: applied to that form of a noun or other word having case-inflection which is used when the word is the subject of a sentence, or to the word itself when it stands in that relation: as, the nominative case of a Latin word; the nominative word in a sentence.
  • noun In grammar, the nominative case; also, a nominative word. Abbreviated nominative

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Gram.) Giving a name; naming; designating; -- said of that case or form of a noun which stands as the subject of a finite verb.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective grammar Giving a name; naming; designating; — said of that case or form of a noun which stands as the subject of a finite verb.
  • noun The nominative case.
  • noun A noun in the nominative case.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective serving as or indicating the subject of a verb and words identified with the subject of a copular verb
  • adjective appointed by nomination
  • noun the category of nouns serving as the grammatical subject of a verb
  • adjective named; bearing the name of a specific person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English nominatyf, either via Anglo-Norman nominatif or directly from Latin nōminatīvus ("pertaining to naming, nominative")

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Examples

  • Also referred to as "aptronyms", New Scientist journalist John Hoyland coined the term "nominative determinism" for these strange cases of people who seem inexorably drawn to their profession by virtue of their name.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • But given that it is the same in nominative and accusative cases, just like a noun, it is a little surprising that it‘s possessive is a special case, especially since its and it’s sound identical.

    2007 September « Motivated Grammar 2007

  • But given that it is the same in nominative and accusative cases, just like a noun, it is a little surprising that it‘s possessive is a special case, especially since its and it’s sound identical.

    Preposterous Apostrophes VI: A Wrinkle « Motivated Grammar 2007

  • How about, um, the singular and plural nominative forms for the Finnish word for "girl"?

    languagehat.com: ONLINE SANSKRIT DICTIONARY. 2004

  • _ Observe that the final - ă of the nominative is short, while the final - ā of the ablative is long, as,

    Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900

  • The New Scientist gave it the name nominative determinism - the idea that there is a link between people's names and their occupation.

    CUANAS 2009

  • A group of women, who dislike the notion of nominative determinism and therefore eschew a title, has written to the ministry, demanding an explanation.

    Patrick Galey: Why Sex Shouldn't Sell for Lebanon's Tourists Patrick Galey 2011

  • English is called a nominative-accusative language because both transitive and intransitive verbs take subjects.

    Behind Bars | ATTACKERMAN 2008

  • They managed it, of course (otherwise they would have failed their exams), but at the expense of making them worry for the rest of their lives about other constructions where there was a choice between subjective and objective (also called nominative and accusative) pronouns.

    Archive 2008-03-01 DC 2008

  • They managed it, of course (otherwise they would have failed their exams), but at the expense of making them worry for the rest of their lives about other constructions where there was a choice between subjective and objective (also called nominative and accusative) pronouns.

    On who(m)ever DC 2008

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