PRIVATIVE, in Grammar, a particle, which, prefixed to a word, changes it into a contrary sense. Thus, among the Greeks, the a is used as a privative; as in atheos, atheist, acephalus, &c. The Latins have their privative in; as, incorrigibilis, indeclinabilis, &c. The English, French, &c. on occasion borrow both the Latin and Greek privatives.