Supportive is what you call someone who is on your side and shows it. The friend who reads your draft, texts you the morning of the interview, and sits through the terrible play you are in.
It is a steady word rather than a dramatic one - a supportive family, a supportive boss, a supportive school. The pattern is supportive OF: she was supportive of the plan, he has been supportive of her all year. The same adjective works on furniture and footwear, where support means holding something up: a supportive mattress, supportive walking boots. In writing it can also mean backing up an idea, as in evidence supportive of the theory. The noun and verb are both support, and the opposite people reach for is unsupportive.
1adjectivesupportiveGiving help, sympathy and encouragement to someone.~92%
“Her parents were surprisingly supportive when she quit law school.”
synonyms: encouraging, caring
2adjectiveholdingHolding something up physically; giving good physical support.~4%
“The boots have a supportive sole for long days on hard ground.”
3adjectiveprovidingProviding evidence that backs up an idea or claim.~4%
“The lab results were supportive of his theory.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 26 sentences found in the wild and placed 26 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Proto-Indo-European
*per- (fare)
Latin
supportō
Old French
supporter
Middle English
supporten
English
support
English, today
supportive
From support + -ive. support comes from Middle English supporten, from Old French supporter, from Latin supportō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA