Ablative

From Middle English, from Old French ablatif ("the ablative case"), from Latin ablÄtÄ«vus ("expressing removal"),

American Heritage 1971|page=3

from Latin ablÄtus ("taken away"), from Latin auferÅ ("I take away"). The engineering/nautical sense is a Back-formation from {{3}}

Full definition of ablative

(grammar) Applied to one of the cases of the noun in some languages, the fundamental meaning of the case being removal, separation, or taking away, and to a lesser degree, instrument, place, accordance, specifications, price, or measurement. First attested from around (1350 to 1470).

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(obsolete) Pertaining to taking away or removing. Attested from the mid 16^th century until the early 18^th century.

unknown date Joseph Hall (bishop)Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion, ablative directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth.

(engineering, nautical) Sacrificial, wearing away or being destroyed in order to protect the underlying, as in ablative paints used for antifouling. First attested in 1959.

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(medical) Relating to the removal of a body part, tumor, or organ. First attested in the mid 20^th century.
(geology) Relating to the erosion of a land mass; relating to the melting or evaporation of a glacier. First attested in the mid 20^th century.

(plural ablatives)

ablative absolute this does not belong here! - a construction in Latin, in which a noun in the ablative case has a participle (either expressed or implied), agreeing with it in gender, number, and case, both words forming a clause by themselves and being unconnected, grammatically, with the rest of the sentence; as, Tarquinio regnante, Pythagoras venit, i. e. "Tarquinius reigning, Pythagoras came"; so, "When Tarquinius was king, Pythagoras came".