cognomen
Americannoun
-
cognomens,
plural
-
cognomina
plural
-
a surname.
-
any name, especially a nickname.
-
the third and commonly the last name of a citizen of ancient Rome, indicating the person's house or family, as “Caesar” in “Gaius Julius Caesar.”
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cognomen
1800–10; < Latin, equivalent to co- co- + nōmen name, with -g- on model of nōscī: cognōscī; see cognition
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And people have continued to find it risibly apposite ever since - especially in conjunction with the equally commonplace cognomen, Will.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2015
Retief Goosen - “Goose” Our second cognomen derived from a last name, which should rank it lower on the list.
From Golf Digest ● Oct. 16, 2013
Its most evocative cognomen is The Porchcrawler—one unhyphenated word, with the crunch of consonants enhancing its cinematic imagery.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2012
It is an odd inversion of status for these masterful men, a class cognomen left over from the days when jockeys were servants of the sporting aristocracy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hence arose the story of his having been a pupil of Primaticcio, and taking from him his cognomen of Abate; when in fact he drew that title from his own family.
From The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. IV (of 6) from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Luigi Antonio Lanzi
Without these air-inflated cognomens, Jim and Marion Jordan might now be back in Peoria.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her Christian name alone was more impressive than the myriad cognomens of queens and princesses.
From The Lion's Share by Arnold Bennett
Although they were strictly pseudo, he at once informed them of their genuine cognomens, and also told them much concerning their past of which they had hitherto been ignorant.
From A Bayard From Bengal Being some account of the Magnificent and Spanking Career of Chunder Bindabun Bhosh,... by Hurry Bungsho Jabberjee
The various lodging-house quarters vie with each other in genteel cognomens and aristocratic flavor.
From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 by Various
Ridiculous nicknames become attached—no one knows how—to the most dignified characters, and altogether usurp the places of the genuine cognomens.
From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various
On the other hand, some aristocratic families used multiple cognomina to indicate their lineage; one inscription indicates that Q. Pompeius Senecio Sosius Priscus, ordinary consul in 169, had 38 names.
From Time ● Aug. 16, 2016
He therefore changed his praenomen to that of his adoptive father, and put his former nomen among his cognomina.
From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by George Middleton
More certain yet is the likeness which shows in a list of 27 names, and all but one without cognomina.
From A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of Praeneste by Ralph Van Deman Magoffin
The Romans had surnames, or cognomina, but the barbarians who won Europe from them had not.
From Stories That Words Tell Us by Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman) O'Neill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
