genitive

Etymology

From Renaissance Latin cāsus genitīvus (literally “case pertaining to origin, birth”) (also spelled cāsus genetīvus), from genitus, the perfect passive participle of gignō (“beget”).

adj

1. (grammar) Of or pertaining to that case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses a quality, origin or possession. It corresponds to the possessive case in English.
   The student who had taken a German exam realised his error afterwards. He had used the dative case instead of the genitive case to show possession.

noun

1. (grammar, uncountable) An inflection pattern (of any given language) that expresses origin or ownership and possession.
2. (grammar, countable) A word inflected in the genitive case; a word indicating origin, ownership or possession.