praetorian

See also: Praetorian, prætorian, and Prætorian

English

Alternative forms

• pretorian, (obsolete) prætorian

Etymology

From Middle English pretorian, from Latin praetōriānus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈtɔːɹiən/

Adjective

praetorian (not comparable)

1. (Ancient Rome) Of or pertaining to a praetor.
2. (Ancient Rome) Of or pertaining to the pretorium in an ancient Roman camp.

   The praetorian gate was directly in front of the general's tent, and nearest to the enemy.

3. (Ancient Rome) Of or pertaining to the special bodyguard force used by Roman emperors.

   praetorian guard

   • 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 4:

     Hey, sir? Sir, excuse me?” The blonde was calling out to him, in imperious tones that insisted on a reply. Her satraps became watchful, like a Praetorian guard.

4. (by extension) Corruptly mercenary and venal.

Derived terms

• praetorian band, praetorian guard: the bodyguard of the emperor in Ancient Rome

Noun

praetorian (plural praetorians)

1. (Ancient Rome) A praetor; a person of praetorian rank.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 108, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     I am so rich, I could have given bid for bid with the wealthiest Prætorians at the auction of the Roman empire (which was the world’s); and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with.

2. (Ancient Rome) Alternative letter-case form of Praetorian (“member of a special bodyguard force used by Roman emperors”).
   • 2013, Sandra Bingham, The Praetorian Guard, I.B.Tauris, page 6:

     Durry's work is still cited as the definitive study of the praetorians, and in fact most modern scholarship on the praetorians is based on material from his work.

3. (by extension) A venal mercenary.
   • 2019 September 23, Jonah Goldberg, “Column: The most noxious part of Ukraine-Biden whistleblower affair is Team Trump thinks we’re all idiots”, in Los Angeles Times:

     The Trump praetorians who initially denied there was any effort to pressure the Ukrainians into action on a Biden probe, possibly including the withholding of congressionally approved military aid, suddenly surfaced a new talking point: “They’re trying to turn what was a Biden scandal into a Trump scandal.”

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “prætorian, pretorian, a. and n.”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• “praetorian”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “praetorian”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• reparation