nomenclature (n.)

c. 1600, "a name" (a sense now obsolete), from French nomenclature (16c.), from Latin nomenclatura "calling of names," from nomenclator "namer," from nomen "name" (from PIE root *no-men- "name") + calator "caller, crier," from calare "call out" (from PIE root *kele- (2) "to shout").

Nomenclator in Rome was the title of a steward whose job was to announce visitors, and also of a prompter who helped a stumping politician recall names and pet causes of his constituents. Meaning "systematic list or catalogue of names" is attested from 1630s; that of "system of naming" is from 1660s; sense of "whole vocabulary or terminology of an art or a science" is from 1789. Related: Nomenclative; nomenclatorial; nomenclatural.

also from c. 1600

Entries linking to nomenclature

nomenklatura (n.)

in the Soviet Union, "list of influential posts in government and industry to be filled by Communist Party appointees," thus "the people who held key administrative and bureaucratic positions in the USSR and Eastern Europe;" by 1959 in English, from Russian, literally "a listing of positions to be filled," from Latin nomenclatura (see nomenclature).

*kele- (2)

*kelə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to shout." Perhaps imitative.

It forms all or part of: acclaim; acclamation; Aufklarung; calendar; chiaroscuro; claim; Claire; clairvoyance; clairvoyant; clamor; Clara; claret; clarify; clarinet; clarion; clarity; class; clear; cledonism; conciliate; conciliation; council; declaim; declare; disclaim; ecclesiastic; eclair; exclaim; glair; hale (v.); halyard; intercalate; haul; keelhaul; low (v.); nomenclature; paraclete; proclaim; reclaim; reconcile.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit usakala "cock," literally "dawn-calling;" Latin calare "to announce solemnly, call out," clamare "to cry out, shout, proclaim;" Middle Irish cailech "cock;" Greek kalein "to call," kelados "noise," kledon "report, fame;" Old High German halan "to call;" Old English hlowan "to low, make a noise like a cow;" Lithuanian kalba "language."

*no-men-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "name."

It forms all or part of: acronym; allonym; ananym; anonymous; antonomasia; antonym; binomial; caconym; cognomen; denominate; eponym; eponymous; heteronym; homonym; homonymous; hyponymy; ignominious; ignominy; innominable; Jerome; matronymic; metonymy; metronymic; misnomer; moniker; name; nomenclature; nominal; nominate; noun; onomastic; onomatopoeia; paronomasia; paronym; patronym; patronymic; praenomen; pronoun; pseudonym; renown; synonym; synonymy; synonymous; toponym.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit nama; Avestan nama; Greek onoma, onyma; Latin nomen; Old Church Slavonic ime, genitive imene; Russian imya; Old Irish ainm; Old Welsh anu "name;" Old English nama, noma, Old High German namo, Old Norse nafn, Gothic namo "name."

Trends of nomenclature

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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terminology

1770, from German Terminologie, a hybrid coined by Christian Gottfried Schütz (1747-1832), professor of poetry and rhetoric at Jena, from Medieval Latin terminus "word, expression" (see terminus) + Greek -logia "a dealing with, a speaking of" (see -logy). Related: Terminological.

language

late 13c., langage "words, what is said, conversation, talk," from Old French langage "speech, words, oratory; a tribe, people, nation" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *linguaticum, from Latin lingua "tongue," also "speech, language," from PIE root *dnghu- "tongue." The -u- is an Anglo

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word

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case

early 13c., "what befalls one; state of affairs," from Old French cas "an event, happening, situation, quarrel, trial," from Latin casus "a chance, occasion, opportunity; accident, mishap," literally "a falling," from cas-, past-participle stem of cadere "to fall, sink, settle do

bishop

Old English bisceop "bishop, high priest (Jewish or pagan)," from Late Latin episcopus, from Greek episkopos "watcher, (spiritual) overseer," a title for various government officials, later taken over in a Church sense, from epi- "over" (see epi-) + skopos "one that watches, one

dissertation

1610s, "discussion, debate" (a sense now obsolete), from Late Latin dissertationem (nominative dissertatio) "discourse," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin dissertare "debate, argue, examine, harangue," frequentative of disserere "discuss, examine," from dis- "apar

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updated on December 09, 2020

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Dictionary entries near nomenclature

nomad

nomadic

no-man's-land

Nome

*no-men-

nomenclature

nomenklatura

nominal

nominalism

nominally

nominate