ergative

adjective

er·​ga·​tive ˈər-gə-tiv 

: of, relating to, or being a language (such as Inuit or Georgian) in which the objects of transitive verbs and subjects of intransitive verbs are typically marked by the same linguistic forms

also : being an inflectional morpheme that typically marks the subject of a transitive verb in an ergative language

Word History

Etymology

Greek ergatēs worker, from ergon work

First Known Use

1939, in the meaning defined above