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, Roman antiquity) 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.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “praetexta”, 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