Etymologically
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nominate

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈnɒm.ɪ.neɪt/, /ˈnɒm.ə.neɪt/[1]
  • US: /ˈnɑ.mɪ.neɪt/, /ˈnɑ.mə.neɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nōminātus (“named, called; appointed”), the past participle of nōminō (“to name, call by name; to appoint”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] from nōmen (“name”),[2][8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *no-men- (“name”).[3][9] The adjective, meaning named, came first, and the verb of the 16th century is from the participial stem nōmināt-,[2][10][11][12] though Barnhart and Etymonline take it partly as a back-formation from nomination.[4][3] Ayto counts it among the few English words from nōmen, the Latin member of the Indo-European family that includes name; others are nominal, nominee, nomenclature, noun and renown.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, named, called: about 1450, in John Capgrave's Solace of Pilgrims.[2][11] As a verb, to call by a name: 1545, in Thomas Raynald's translation of Roesslin's Byrth of Mankynde.[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb soon came to mean appointing someone by name to an office or duty (1556)[2] and proposing someone as a candidate for election (1560, in John Knox's Buke of Discipline).[2][4] Etymonline dates these senses to the 1560s and about 1600.[3] The first sense, to call by a name, was common in the 17th century but is now obsolete.[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined the verb first as to name or mention by name.[13] Later sports and trade senses include entering a horse for a race (1859) and naming the ball to be hit in snooker or pool (1896);[2] in Australia nominate was used of sponsoring an immigrant (1873, in Trollope) and, since 1953, of standing as a candidate oneself.[2][14] In 19th-century American and Australian slang, to nominate was to name one's drink.[15] The adjective survives in Scots law, for a person appointed to an office, in Roman and civil law for a contract with a specific name, and since 1948 in zoology for the subspecies that contains the type of its species.[2][10][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1450 – adjective, named, called.[2]
  • 1545 – verb, to call by a name (obsolete by 1868).[2][6]
  • 1556 – to appoint to an office.[2]
  • 1560 – to propose as a candidate.[2][4]
  • 1564 – to fix or specify.[2]
  • 1570 – to mention by name.[2]
  • 1859 – to enter a horse for a race.[2]
  • 1948 – adjective, in zoology, of a nominate subspecies.[2]
  • 1953 – in Australia, to stand as a candidate.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To propose someone as a candidate for election, or for an honour or award: The committee nominated three writers for the prize.[14][6][2]
  2. To appoint someone to an office or position.[14][6][2]
  3. To name someone to act on one's behalf.[14]
  4. (Australian) To stand as a candidate in an election.[14][2]
  5. To enter a horse for a race.[2][6]
  6. To specify or fix something, such as a time or place.[2][10]
  7. (archaic) To call by a name; to designate.[14][6][2][10]

Adjective

  1. (rare) Having a particular name; in law, of a contract that has a specific name.[14][6][2]
  2. (zoology) Belonging to the subspecies that contains the type of its species.[2][10]

Word family

  • nominator
  • nominatable
  • nominee
  • prenominate
  • renominate
  • unnominated

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com