prenome

Forms

prenome m (plural prenomes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praenōmen (“personal name before the family name”), formed prae- (“before”) and nōmen (“name”).^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word.^[4] Wiktionary analyses it within Portuguese as pré- and nome, and Vieira (1871–1874) did the same.^[1][5] The Latin word is recorded from Varro on.^[6] French borrowed the same Latin word as French prénom, recorded from 1556; Italian prenome is the Italian form.^[7][1]

The Latin word for “name” goes back to the Proto-Indo-European word for “name”: Wiktionary gives it as Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥, de Vaan as *h₃néh₃mn̥.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is of 1540.^[2] Morais (1789) defines the word as a title placed before the name, as among the Romans, and quotes João de Barros on the people of the Moluccas: entre os de Maluco he prenome como entre nos o Dom “among the people of Maluku it is a prenome, as Dom is among us”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word named the personal name that stood before the nomen or family name in Roman practice (Marcus in Marcus Tullius Cicero).^[9][10] The older Portuguese dictionaries define it as a title before the name: so Morais in 1789 and Vieira in the 1870s.^[8][5] The original Caldas Aulete has both that sense and the modern one, the name that comes before the family name, the baptismal name;^[11][12] Silva Bastos (1912) gives only the latter.^[11][12] The modern dictionaries define it as the name by which each member of a family is told apart.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1540 – first record, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a title before the name and quotes João de Barros.^[8]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from pre- and nome and defines it as a title before the name.^[5]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos defines it as the name that precedes the family name.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person's own name, which comes before the family name; the given name or baptismal name, antenome: O prenome dela é Ana;^{[2][15][14][1]} Lopes é o sobrenome.^{[2][15][14][1]}

Related words

• pronome
• nome
• sobrenome
• Latin praenōmen
• French prénom

Usage notes

Priberam marks the second syllable with a closed /o/ and refers the reader to the similar-sounding pronome.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prenome
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. praenōmen
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prenome
5. ^ a b c Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 910
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. prénom
8. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 236
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. prenome
12. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. prenome
13. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7439
14. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. prenome
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prenome
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. prenome