What is the difference between ergative and absolutive in linguistic typology?

In linguistic typology, ergative and absolutive are two different types of grammatical systems used to mark the subjects and objects of a sentence. In an ergative-absolutive language, the subject of an intransitive verb is treated differently from the subject of a transitive verb. The ergative case is used for the subject of a transitive verb, while the absolutive case is used for the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. This contrast is a key feature of ergative-absolutive languages, distinguishing them from nominative-accusative languages where the subject of both types of verbs is treated the same.