Nomina

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Terms used to designate names of people, places, or things; words that function as nouns in grammar; labels or titles assigned to entities
2. Designations assigned to individuals or objects; grammatical units that serve as noun forms; identifiers applied to persons, locations, or concepts
3. Names used to identify specific entities such as individuals or locations; linguistic elements classified as nouns; words functioning as proper or common nouns in language contexts

Etymology: "Nomina" is the plural of Latin "nomen," which meant "name" and came into English as "noun," a word for the class of words that name things. The Latin "nomen" was itself a shortened form of "nomen gentile," meaning "family name," the name a Roman citizen shared with his clan. Over time the first part of that phrase was dropped, leaving the simpler word to carry the sense of naming. English "name" and "noun" are doublets, two words from the same source that reached the language by different routes. "Name" descends from the Germanic branch and came through Old English, while "noun" was borrowed later, through Old French "nom," directly from the Latin. The plural "nomina" keeps the Latin form in use, most often in phrases like "nomina" in the sense of lists of names, such as the ancient Roman "nomina" of citizens.

Synonyms: names, terms, titles, designations, labels