Definition:
The mood of the verb used in ordinary statements: stating a fact, expressing an opinion, asking a question.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "stating"Examples:
- "I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom."
(Dick Powell, Murder, My Sweet, 1944) - "Money. You know what that is. The stuff you never have enough of. Little green things with George Washington’s picture that men slave for, commit crimes for, die for. It’s the stuff that has caused more trouble in the world than anything else ever invented. Simply because there’s too little of it."
(Tom Neal, Detour, 1945) - Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation.
Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?
(Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon, 1941) - "There are only three ways to deal with a blackmailer. You can pay him and pay him and pay him until you’re penniless. Or you can call the police yourself and let your secret be known to the world. Or you can kill him."
(Edward G. Robinson, The Woman in the Window, 1944) - Betty Schaefer: Don't you sometimes hate yourself?
Joe Gillis: Constantly.
(Nancy Olson and William Holden, Sunset Boulevard, 1950) - "She liked me. I could feel that. The way you feel when the cards are falling right for you, with a nice little pile of blue and yellow chips in the middle of the table. Only what I didn’t know then was that I wasn’t playing her. She was playing me, with a deck of marked cards . . .."
(Fred MacMurray, Double Indemnity, 1944) - "Laura considered me the wisest, the wittiest, the most interesting man she’d ever met. I was in complete accord with her."
(Clifton Webb, Laura, 1944) - "Personally, I’m convinced that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."
(Eve Arden, Mildred Pierce, 1945)
Pronunciation: in-DIK-i-tiv mood
