From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Prescriptive \Pre*scrip"tive\, adjective [L. praescriptivus of a demurrer or legal exception.]
1. (Law) Consisting in, or acquired by, immemorial or long-continued use and enjoyment; as, a prescriptive right of title; pleading the continuance and authority of long custom.
The right to be drowsy in protracted toil has become prescriptive. --J. M. Mason.
2. Of or pertaining to the doctrine that acceptable grammatical rules should be prescribed by authority, rather than be determined by common usage. [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: giving directives or rules; "prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage" [syn: {normative}] [ant: {descriptive}]
2: based on or prescribing a norm or standard; "normative grammar" [syn: {normative}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
131 Moby Thesaurus words for "prescriptive": absolute, accepted, accustomed, acknowledged, admitted, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, average, binding, canonical, commanding, common, commonplace, compelling, compulsory, conclusive, conformable, constrictive, consuetudinary, conventional, current, customary, decisive, decretal, decretive, decretory, dictated, dictating, dictatorial, didactic, directive, dogmatic, entailed, established, ethnocentric, everyday, exceptional, excluding, exclusive, exclusory, familiar, final, fixed, folk, formulary, generally accepted, habitual, hallowed, handed down, hard and fast, hard-and-fast, heroic, hoary, household, immemorial, imperative, imperious, imposed, inadmissible, instructive, insular, inveterate, irrevocable, jussive, legendary, long-established, long-standing, mandated, mandating, mandatory, must, mythological, narrow, normal, normative, obligating, obligatory, obtaining, of long standing, of the folk, official, oral, ordinary, overbearing, parochial, peremptory, popular, preceptive, preclusive, predominating, prescribed, prescript, prevailing, prevalent, preventive, prohibitive, received, recognized, regular, regulation, required, restrictive, rooted, rubric, seclusive, segregative, select, selective, separative, set, snobbish, standard, statutory, stock, time-honored, traditional, tried and true, true-blue, ultimate, understood, universal, unwritten, usual, venerable, vernacular, widespread, without appeal, wonted, worshipful, xenophobic
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