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.

---

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• praetextae
  plural

Etymology

Origin of praetexta

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

Example Sentences

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 Butler, Harold Edgeworth

They also wore the toga praetexta, which, though associated by us with secular magistrates, had undoubtedly a religious origin.

From The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus by Fowler, W. Warde

The tragic actors wore the crepida, corresponding to the cothurnus, and a heavy toga, which in the praetexta had the purple border giving its name to the species.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various

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 Cruttwell, Charles Thomas

Each wore a wreath of corn, a white fillet and the praetexta.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens" by Various