Word.ws English Dictionary

praetexta

praetexta noun: a white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.

praetexta: a white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga...
Image: Nordisk familjebok, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

praetexta (plural praetextas or praetextae)

  1. (Ancient-Rome, historical) A white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.
    • The officers who had attended the proceſſion, ſtripped off the robes in which they were dreſſed, and caſt them in the flames. Women crowded to the pile, and threw upon it, as a ſacrifice to the manes of the dead, the ornaments of their own perſons, the gorgets and the prætextas of their children.1783, Adam Ferguson, chapter II, in The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, volume III, Dublin: Printed for Meſſrs. Price, Whitestone, Colles, […], book V, page 73
    • It gave to Pompey the Great the privilege of appearing in triumphal robes, and with a golden crown at Circensian games, and with a praetexta and golden crown at theatrical plays.1886 October 30, Claverley, “The Origin of the Drama, and Old Dramatic Writers of Tragedy”, in Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, volume 62, number 9,350, Supplement, page 2

Forms of praetexta

pluralpraetextas
pluralpraetextae
alternative formprætexta

Origin of praetexta

From Latin praetexta (toga), from praetextus, perfect passive participle of praetexō (“to weave before, to fringe, border”); prae- (“before”) + texō (“to weave”).

Questions about praetexta

What does praetexta mean?
Praetexta means a white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.
What part of speech is praetexta?
Praetexta is a noun.
What is the plural of praetexta?
The plural of praetexta is praetextas.

Words near praetexta in the dictionary

  1. praetermits
  2. praetermitted
  3. praetermitting
  4. praeternatural
  5. praeternature
  6. praetexta
  7. praetor
  8. praetores
  9. praetoria
  10. praetorial
  11. praetorian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: praetexta (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.

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