👉 In linguistics, an "ergate" is a type of morpheme that can be used to form compound words. An ergative word is one that has a verb (e.g., "to run") and an adjective (e.g., "quickly"). Ergatives are often used in conjunction with verbs or other components of sentences to create new words, such as "run quickly," which means "to go fast." Ergates can also be used to create idiomatic expressions or phrases.