praenomen

• prænomen, prenomen

From Latin praenōmen, from prae- (“pre-: before”) + nōmen (“name, family name”).

praenomen (plural praenomens or praenomina)

1. (historical) An Ancient Roman given name.

   Julius Caesar's praenomen was Gaius.

   • 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiv:

     The Romans evolved a quite different system of nomenclature, which in its classical form consisted of three names, the praenomen (e.g. Marcus), nomen (e.g. Tullius), and cognomen (e.g. Cicero), and two other designations (the name of the father and of the tribe): […]

2. (historical) The throne name of a pharaoh, the fourth of the five names of the royal titulary, traditionally encircled by a cartouche and preceded by the title nswt-bjtj.

   Tutankhamun's praenomen or throne name was Nebkheperrure, "Lord of the forms of Ra".

   • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 121:

     The old explanation was that the Greeks applied the name [λαβύρινθος (labúrinthos)] to it [the Temple of Hawara] because the prenomen or "throne-name" of its builder, Amenemhat III., would have been pronounced *Nemarî^e, and, by a usual interchange of n with l, transliterated into Greek as Labaris or Lamaris.

3. (zoology) The genus name in a binomial scientific name.

   In the name Tyrannosaurus rex, "Tyrannosaurus" is the praenomen.

• (Roman personal name): See given name

• (Roman personal name): nomen (family name), cognomen (epithet or clan name), agnomen (epithet)
• (Pharaonic name): serekh name, Two Ladies name, gold name, nomen (given name)

• praenominal

prae- (“before”) +‎ nōmen (“name”)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [prae̯ˈnoː.mɛn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [preˈnɔː.men]

praenōmen n (genitive praenōminis); third declension

1. praenomen: An ancient Roman first name.

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

• agnōmen
• nōmen
• cognōmen

• “praenomen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “praenomen”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• praenomen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “praenomen”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “praenomen”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin