Meanings of optative in English

Thus much, if it may please your Lordship, was in the optative mood.

Or the indicative in place of the optative, as (I. ii.

And, on the contrary, the optative for the indicative, as (I. v. 388):-

Fondness for optative in indirect constructions, i.

It is masculine, feminine, and neuter in gender, singular by nature, and generally accusative, and it is optative in mood and full of acute accents.

The Imperative and Optative moods clearly do not convey assertions at all, while the Subjunctive can only figure as a subordinate member of some assertion.

'We leave room on every subject for the human or optative part; for it is a part of science to make judicious inquiries and wishes.'

"For lovers," he said sagely, "are either in the optative mood, the desperative, or the exultative." This time he had used the optative.