-ive

From Anglo-Norman -if (feminine -ive), from Latin -ivus. Until the fourteenth century all Middle English loanwords from Anglo-Norman ended in -if (compare actif, natif, sensitif, pensif etc.), and under the influence of literary Neolatin both languages introduced the form -ive. Those forms that have not been replaced were subsequently changed to end in -y (compare hasty, from hastif, jolly, from jolif etc.).

Like the Latin suffix -io (genitive -ionis), Latin suffix -ivus is appended to the perfect passive participle to form an adjective of action.

• IPA^(key): /ɪv/

-ive

1. An adjective suffix signifying relating or belonging to, of the nature of, tending to; as affirmative, active, conclusive, corrective, diminutive.

• -ive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Miller, D. Gary (2006) Latin Suffixal Derivatives in English and Their Indo-European Ancestry, Oxford University Press, page 204

• VEI, vie

-īve

1. vocative masculine singular of -īvus

-ive

1. Alternative form of -yf

• “-i(e, (suf.5)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 June 2018.
• “-if, -ive (suf.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 June 2018.