praenomen

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praenōmen (“forename”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} literally "before the name",^[3][6] from prae- (“before”) and nōmen (“name”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *no-men- (“name”).^[3] The OED compares French prénom, Portuguese prenome, Spanish prenombre and Italian prenome, all meaning "first name" and recorded between 1389 and 1556.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A first name or forename: 1603, in A. Hartwell's translation of L. Soranzo's Ottoman.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has always pointed back to the Roman naming system, in which it was the personal name before the nomen and cognomen:^[2][8][6] Weekley's example is Publius in Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.^[9] Etymonline lists Marcus, Gaius and Lucius, and calls it the equivalent of the modern personal name.^[3] Older dictionaries date the English word later than the OED's revision of December 2006 does: Dictionary.com has 1655–65, Etymonline 1706, and Hoad and Collins the 18th century.^{[10][3][5][11]} It was then extended by likeness: T. Fuller, before 1661, used it for the first of two words in a place name,^[2] since 1843, in R. J. Graves, biology has used it for a word in the name of an animal or plant, compared to a forename in its position or function.^[2]

Timeline

• 1603 – a first name or forename.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the word to 1706.^[3]
• before 1661 – the first of two words in a place name, in Fuller (obsolete).^[2]
• 1843 – in biology, a word forming part of the name of an animal or plant.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The first or personal name of an ancient Roman, placed before the nomen and cognomen.^{[11][7][2][8]}
2. Any first name; a forename.^[2][8][7]
3. (biology) A word forming part of the binomial name of an animal or plant, likened to a forename.^[2][7]
4. (obsolete) The first of two words making up the name of a place.^[2][7]

Word family

• praenominal

Related words

• nomen
• cognomen
• agnomen
• name

Usage notes

The plural is praenomens or praenomina, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has the spelling prenomen.^[7][11]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins