Etymologically
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nominal

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 03:18. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈnɒm.ɪ.nl̩/[1]
  • US: /ˈnɑ.mɪ.nl̩/[1]

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

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