Definition of "optative" []

• Expressing a wish or choice. (adjective)
• Grammar Of, relating to, or being a mood of verbs in some languages, such as Greek, used to express a wish. (adjective)
• Grammar Designating a statement using a verb in the subjunctive mood to indicate a wish or desire, as in Had I the means, I would do it. (adjective)
• Grammar The optative mood. (noun)
• Grammar A verb or an expression in the optative mood. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Greek has a particular mood called the optative mood."
• "Likewise *-i is absent in all other irrealis moods ie. the optative, and likely too, the subjunctive."
• "So presumably if *h₁i-yéh₁-n̥t 'they should go' is the optative of an objective verb like *h₁y-énti 'they go', then theoretically *ḱéi-ih₁-th₂e 'you should lie down' rather than later *ḱéi-ih₁-s would have originally been the optative of *ḱéi-th₂or 'you lie down'."