COGNOMEN (cognomina)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: cognomina   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cognomen mean? 

• COGNOMEN (noun)
  The noun COGNOMEN has 2 senses:

1. a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name)

2. the name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name)

  Familiarity information: COGNOMEN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COGNOMEN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

byname; cognomen; moniker; nickname; sobriquet; soubriquet

Context example:

Henry's nickname was Slim

Hypernyms ("cognomen" is a kind of...):

appellation; appellative; denomination; designation (identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

cognomen; family name; last name; surname

Hypernyms ("cognomen" is a kind of...):

name (a language unit by which a person or thing is known)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cognomen"):

maiden name (a woman's surname before marriage)

 Context examples 

Under the temporary pressure of pecuniary liabilities, contracted with a view to their immediate liquidation, but remaining unliquidated through a combination of circumstances, I have been under the necessity of assuming a garb from which my natural instincts recoil—I allude to spectacles—and possessing myself of a cognomen, to which I can establish no legitimate pretensions.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)