appellative

American  

[uh-pel-uh-tiv] / əˈpɛl ə tɪv /

noun

1. a descriptive name or designation, as Bald in Charles the Bald.

2. a common noun.

---

adjective

1. designative; descriptive.

2. tending toward or serving for the assigning of names.

   the appellative function of some primitive rites.

3. pertaining to a common noun.

appellative British  

/ əˈpɛlətɪv /

noun

1. an identifying name or title; appellation

2. grammar another word for common noun

---

adjective

1. of or relating to a name or title

2. (of a proper noun) used as a common noun

Other Word Forms

• appellatively adverb
• appellativeness noun

Etymology

Origin of appellative

1375–1425; late Middle English (< Middle French ) < Late Latin appellātīvus. See appellate, -ive

Example Sentences

Now a taxidermied water buffalo head — the ox — watches from above the bar, while the appellative bull is represented across from it in gleaming metal.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 26, 2023

I did not know him as Lamb: I took him for a Mr. "Guy," having heard somebody address him by that appellative, I suppose in jest.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. by Various

The meaning of river, water, must have belonged to this wide-spread root, though I never find it applied as an appellative, apart from the obsolete Dutch word aar, which Pott produces.

From The River-Names of Europe by Ferguson, Robert

The only appellative for a river which I find derived from its sound is the Sanscrit nadi, Hind. nuddy, from nad, sonare.

From The River-Names of Europe by Ferguson, Robert

GEORGE'S, the name being suggested, in the first place, by the baptismal appellative of their virtual founder and Hon. Sec.,

From The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess Champion by Edge, Frederick Milnes