praetexta

See also: prætexta

English

Alternative forms

• prætexta (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin praetexta (toga), from praetextus, past participle of praetexere (“to weave before, to fringe, border”); prae (“before”) + texere (“weave”).

Noun

praetexta (plural praetextas or praetextae)

1. (historical, Ancient Rome) A white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.
   • 1783, Adam Ferguson, chapter II, in The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, volume III, Dublin: Printed for Meſſrs. Price, Whitestone, Colles, […], book V, page 73:

     The officers who had attended the proceſſion, ſtripped off the robes in which they were dreſſed, and caſt them in the flames. Women crowded to the pile, and threw upon it, as a ſacrifice to the manes of the dead, the ornaments of their own perſons, the gorgets and the prætextas of their children.

   • 1886 October 30, Claverley, “The Origin of the Drama, and Old Dramatic Writers of Tragedy”, in Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, volume 62, number 9,350, Supplement, page 2:

     It gave to Pompey the Great the privilege of appearing in triumphal robes, and with a golden crown at Circensian games, and with a praetexta and golden crown at theatrical plays.

   • 1896 May 17, “A Chicago Boys First Vote”, in The Sunday Inter Ocean, volume 25, number 54, Chicago, Ill., page 23:

     In ancient Rome, after a boy celebrated his sixteenth birthday he was considered a man. He threw aside the praetexta worn in his youth, and donned the toga of a full-fledged Roman citizen.

Further reading

• “prætexta”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Participle

praetexta

1. inflection of praetextus:
   1. nominative/ablative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

References

• “praetexta”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “praetexta”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• praetexta in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• praetexta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “praetexta”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “praetexta”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin