nominal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nominalle (“of nouns”),^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin nōminālis (“of names; of nouns”),^[6][3][2][7] from nōmen (“name”) and the suffix -ālis, English -al.^[6][8][5] The OED notes that in medieval Latin used in Britain the adjective also meant "concerned with names", and as a noun "a nominalist", both from the 12th century, and compares Middle French nominal (“relating to a noun”), recorded in 1503;^[6] the Shorter Oxford and Hoad allow a French source.^[9][7] The Latin noun is cognate with Old English nama, the source of name,^[3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *no-men- (“name”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In grammar, relating to nouns: about 1450, in The Art of Nombryng, an early English treatise on arithmetic.^[6][3] Barnhart dates the Middle English form to before 1500,^[5] and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the late 15th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical sense was rare before the 19th century.^[6] The word moved from nouns to names: a philosophical sense, "nominalist", appears in Tyndale (1528) and was obsolete by 1709;^[6] "relating to names, as distinct from things" is recorded from 1620.^[6][3][5] The main modern sense, "existing in name only, not real", is dated 1610 by the revised OED and 1624 by Barnhart.^[6][5] Johnson (1755) gave it as "referring to names rather than to things; not real; titular".^[11] From 1661 the word also meant "very small compared with what is expected", as in a nominal fee,^[6][12] and in 19th-century finance a nominal value or share was one stated or assigned by name.^[6] In the US space programme of the 1960s nominal came to mean "functioning as planned; normal".^[6] As a grammatical noun, a word or phrase that works as a noun, it dates from 1904.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – in grammar, relating to nouns.^[6]
• 1528 – nominalist (obsolete by 1709).^[6]
• 1610 – existing in name only.^[6]
• 1620 – relating to names rather than things.^[6][5]
• 1661 – very small compared with what is expected; token.^[6]
• 1822 – of shares, assigned to a person by name.^[6]
• 1904 – noun, a word or phrase that functions as a noun.^[6]
• 1961 – in astronautics, functioning normally.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Being something in name only, not in fact; titular: the nominal head of the family firm.^[12][13][6]
2. Very small in comparison with the real value; token: They charge a nominal rent.^[12][6]
3. Of, relating to or consisting of a name or names.^[12][6]
4. (grammar) Of or relating to a noun or noun phrase.^[12][6]
5. (chiefly astronautics) Functioning as planned; within the normal limits.^[6]

Noun

1. (grammar) A word or phrase that functions as a noun.^[12][6]

Word family

• nominally
• adnominal
• multinominal
• nominalize
• prenominal
• denominal

Related words

• denominate
• denomination
• denominator
• nomenclature
• nominalism
• nominate
• nomination
• nominative
• noun
• name

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster