DATIVE, in Grammar, the third case in the declension of nouns, expressing the state or relation of a thing to
which some other thing is referred. It is called dativ, because usually governed by a verb, implying something to be given to some person. As commodare Socrati, to lend to Socrates; utilis reipublicae, useful to the commonwealth; perniciosus ecclesiae, injurious to the church. In English, where we have properly no cases, this relation is expressed by the sign to or for.