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

Etymology

Origin of praetexta

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

praetexta

There are eight complete tragedies and one praetexta, the Octavia, which is generally supposed to be by a later hand, as well as considerable fragments from the Thebais and Phoenissae.

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

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

That the praetexta had a quasi-sacred character seems certain; see e.g.

From Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler

Its chief interest lies in the fact that it is the one surviving example of a fabula praetexta, or tragedy, drawn from Roman life.

From Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal by Harold Edgeworth Butler

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