consecutive

From French consécutif, from Medieval Latin cōnsecūtīvus, from Latin cōnsecūtus (“followed up”), from Latin cōnsequor (“to travel”).

• IPA^(key): /kənˈsɛkjʊtɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

consecutive (not comparable)

1. following, in succession, without interruption
   • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian‎:

     He follows Frédi Kanouté, who achieved the feat in 2006 and 2007 for Sevilla, in scoring in consecutive Uefa Cup/Europa League finals.

   • 2021 September 8, Phil McNulty, “Poland 1-1 England”, in BBC Sport‎:

     It was his 41st goal for England, making him the country's fifth highest international goalscorer and continued an incredible record of scoring in 15 consecutive World Cup and Euro qualifiers.

2. having some logical sequence

• concurrent
• nonconsecutive
• simultaneously

consecutive (countable and uncountable, plural consecutives)

1. (music, countable) A sequence of notes or chords that results from repeated shifts in pitch of the same interval.
   • 1919, Henry J. Watt, The Foundations of Music, page 88:

     The theory suggests, but does not state explicitly, that the prohibition of consecutives is the stricter the nearer the interval in question lies to the fundamental component of a blend.

   • 2003, Franck Thomas Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-bass, →ISBN, page 484:

     In the case of discords, the fixed progression of the dissonant interval serves, to a large extent, as a guide to the progression of the remaining intervals of the harmony; in the case of concords this guidance is lacking, and it must be remembered that, in every progression of two parts, by similar motion, to a perfect concord (Fifth or Octave), there are bound to be hidden, if not apparent, consecutives.

   • 2004, Hugh Benham, A Student's Guide to Harmony and Counterpoint, →ISBN, page 86:

     Before adding the inner parts, check that there are no consecutives between S and B – don't forget that these can occur between the last printed notes of the phrase and your added parts, as well as within your own working. Here the risk of consecutives has been minimised by using mainly contrary motion in the bass.

2. (linguistics, countable) A linguistic form that implies or describes an event that follows temporally from another.
   • 1986, Dieter Kastovsky, Aleksander Szwedek, Linguistics across Historical and Geographical Boundaries, →ISBN:

     What marks the consecutive is its special morphology and syntax indicating the temporal succession of actions.

   • 1993, Bernard Comrie, Maria Polinsky, Causatives and Transitivity, →ISBN, page 338:

     Unfortunately, we have not had the opportunity to study examples of consecutives in other languages. We hypothesize that consecutives may be found in other languages, especially in those langages that have a complicated system of Aktionsarten.

   • 2008, Terry Mortenson, Thane Ury, Coming to Grips With Genesis, →ISBN:

     Most commentators recognize that the two waw consecutives in Genesis 2:15 resume the narrative thread of verse 8.

   • 2013, John D. Alderete, Morphologically Governed Accent in Optimality Theory, →ISBN, page 285:

     In imperfect consecutives, stress shifts from the final to the penultimate syllable, as in wayyáaqom 'and he arose', from the related jussive yaaqóom 'let him arise' (the final vowel is underlyingly short); this shift is blocked, however, if the penultimate syllable does not contain a long vowel, as shown by wayyabdéel 'and he divided'.

3. (uncountable and countable) Consecutive interpretation.
   • 2002, Giuliana Garzone, Maurizio Viezzi, Interpreting in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities, →ISBN:

     Having an audience would have allowed a more natural setting for the consecutive. The choice of individual sessions was dictated by the following considerations: (i) given that the recordings were made on an itinerant basis (sometimes at subjects' homes), it would have proved practically impossible to arrange an audience for every session; (ii) recruiting an audience for the consecutives recorded at university would have limited the pool of potential subjects without prior knowledge of the speeches; (iii) it would have been inconsistent to record some interpretations before an audience and others in individual sessions.

consecutive f pl

1. feminine plural of consecutivo