Citations:percontative


 * 1845, Edward Smedley, Hugh James Rose, and Henry John Rose [eds.], Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, The Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, on an Original Plan, first division: “Pure Sciences”, volume 1: ‘Formal’, chapter I: « Universal Grammar and Philology: or the forms of Languages », pages 50–51
 * It is very true, as observed by Sanctius, that the great mass of grammatical writers are so extremely discordant in their opinions respecting this part of the science of which they treat, that they have left us scarcely any thing on it which can be said to be established by general consent. Some make only three modes, others four, five, six, and even eight. Again, some call these affections of the verb moods; others call them divisions, qualities, states, species, &c.; and as to the various appellations of each mood we have the personative and impersonative, the indicative, declarative, definitive, modus finiendi, modus fatendi, the rogative, interrogative, requisitive, percontative, assertive, enunciative, vocative, precative, deprecative, responsive, concessive, permissive, promissive, adhortative, optative, dubitative, imperative, mandative, conjunctive, subjunctive, adjunctive, potential, participial, infinitive, and probably many others.
 * 1849, Herman Melville, Mardi: and, A Voyage Thither, volume II (1922 Constable reprint), page 285
 * ‘Perfect Dicibles are of various sorts: Interrogative; Percontative; Adjurative; Optative; Imprecative; Execrative; Substitutive; Compellative; Hypothetical; and, lastly, Dubious.’
 * 1960, Raymond Queneau [aut.] and an unknown translator, Zazie (Harper), page 128
 * Destined for internal consumption, these three words nevertheless provoked the reply which you see here: who doesn’t? With an interrogation point, for the reply was percontative.