praetexta

American  

[pree-tek-stuh] / priˈtɛk stə /

Or pretexta

noun

• praetextae
  plural

1. (in ancient Rome) a white toga with a broad purple border, worn by priests and magistrates as an official costume, and by certain other Romans as ceremonial dress.

2. a similar garment worn by a boy until he assumed the toga virilis, or by a girl until she married.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• praetextae
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of praetexta

1595–1605; < Latin, short for toga praetexta literally, bordered toga. See pretext

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

praetexta

Although not sacrosanct, they had the right of sitting in a curule chair and wore the distinctive toga praetexta.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

If, finally, you see him lamenting, complaining, unhappy, call him a slave, though he wears a praetexta.

From A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion by Epictetus

We know of but twelve tragedies and one praetexta by him.

From The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius by Charles Thomas Cruttwell

Besides these, Ennius probably wrote a praetexta on ‘the Rape of the Sabines’; and his Ambracia is probably a praetexta on the capture of the town by M. Fulvius Nobilior in B.C.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by George Middleton

Its only interest is as the single extant specimen of the fabula praetexta, or drama with a Roman subject and characters.

From Latin Literature by J. W. (John William) Mackail

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