Word.ws English Dictionary

praenominal

praenominal adjective: relating to a praenomen.

Adjective

praenominal (not comparable)

  1. Relating to a praenomen.
    • perplexum usum praenominum et cognominum. ‘In origin and conception’ (says Mommsen) ‘the cognomen is very nearly akin to the praenomen, nay, in a certain degree, identical with it. For just as in the case of women the praenomen, without material alteration, and only through the absence of official...1874, John Wordsworth, “Ex M. Terentii Varronis Reliquiis”, in Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, part III (Selections from Authors), chapter section 7 (Liber de...
    • Jewels of Princess Mererit: remains of mirrors, necklaces and shells, pectoral representing two enraged griffins trampling down two Asiatics and having between them the first named praenominal cartouche of Senusert III;1910, Cairo and Its Environs, page 82

Examples of praenominal in a sentence

  • Agrippa, Numa, Postumus, Proculus, so Volusus and Fusus, after dropping their praenominal quality, have continued in use as cognomina’ (l.c. p. 42).1874, John Wordsworth, “Ex M. Terentii Varronis Reliquiis”, in Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, part...
  • Occasionally, the praenomen Nero is preceded by the praenominal use of IMP· for imperator, as in an inscription c. 66 a.d. (Dessau, 233).1919, John Edwin Sandys, Latin Epigraphy: An Introduction to the Study of Latin Inscriptions, Cambridge: at the University Press, page 237:
  • These include Felix Bebenianus Caesennianus (ILT 728; IOILA 3, no. 99) and the praenominal duonomen of P.2008, Karen B. Stern, “Naming Like the Neighbors: Jewish Onomastic Practices in Roman North Africa”, in Inscribing Devotion and Death...
  • The owner’s name, therefore, should be read as Aulus Saufeus and the ‘A’ is most likely associated with the centurion’s praenominal abbreviation.2020, Matthew Dillon, Christopher Matthew, The Roman Republic (Religion & Classical Warfare), Pen & Sword Military, →ISBN:

Forms of praenominal

alternative uncommonprenominal
alternative form (obsolete)prænominal

Origin of praenominal

From Latin praenōmin-, praenōmen (“praenomen”) + -al.

Questions about praenominal

What does praenominal mean?
Praenominal means relating to a praenomen.
How do you use praenominal in a sentence?
Agrippa, Numa, Postumus, Proculus, so Volusus and Fusus, after dropping their praenominal quality, have continued in use as cognomina’ (l.c. p. 42).
What part of speech is praenominal?
Praenominal is an adjective.

Words near praenominal in the dictionary

  1. Praenestinians
  2. praeneural
  3. praenomen
  4. praenomens
  5. praenomina
  6. praenominal
  7. praenuculid
  8. praenuculids
  9. praeocular
  10. praeopercula
  11. praeopercular

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: praenominal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “praenominal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/praenominal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.