Etymology
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praenomen (n.)

among ancient Romans, a name prefixed to the family name (Marcus, Gaius, Lucius, etc.), answering to the modern personal name, 1706, from Latin praenomen, literally "before the name," from prae "before" (see prae-) + nomen (from PIE root *no-men- "name").

Entries linking to praenomen

prae- 
word-forming element meaning "before," from Latin prae (adv.) "before," from PIE *prai-, *prei-, from root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before" (also see pre-). Reduced to pre- in Medieval Latin. According to OED the full form prae- in Modern English appears "usually only in words that are still regarded as Latin, ... or that are terms of classical antiquity ...."
*no-men- 

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "name."

It forms all or part of: acronym; allonym; ananym; anonymous; antonomasia; antonym; binomial; caconym; cognomen; denominate; eponym; eponymous; heteronym; homonym; homonymous; hyponymy; ignominious; ignominy; innominable; Jerome; matronymic; metonymy; metronymic; misnomer; moniker; name; nomenclature; nominal; nominate; noun; onomastic; onomatopoeia; paronomasia; paronym; patronym; patronymic; praenomen; pronoun; pseudonym; renown; synonym; synonymy; synonymous; toponym.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit nama; Avestan nama; Greek onoma, onyma; Latin nomen; Old Church Slavonic ime, genitive imene; Russian imya; Old Irish ainm; Old Welsh anu "name;" Old English nama, noma, Old High German namo, Old Norse nafn, Gothic namo "name."

updated on October 02, 2020

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Definitions of praenomen from WordNet

praenomen (n.)
the first name of a citizen of ancient Rome;
From wordnet.princeton.edu, not affiliated with etymonline.

Dictionary entries near praenomen

practise

practitioner

Prado

prae-

praecipe

praenomen

Praesepe

praeter-

praetor

Praetorian

pragmatic

© 2001-2022 Douglas Harper