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prothonotary. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
prothonotary, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
prothonotary in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English prothonotarie, from Medieval Latin protonotarius, from Byzantine Greek πρωτονοτάριος (prōtonotários), from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos) + Byzantine Greek νοτάριος (notários), from Latin notārius (“notary”).
Noun
prothonotary (plural prothonotaries)
- (obsolete, historical) A chief legal clerk or notary in Roman Byzantium, and (hence) in Rome.
- (Roman Catholicism) One of the seven prelates, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.
- A registrar or chief clerk in various courts of law, especially (US) in a county court, (Australia) in certain state Supreme Courts, (Canada) in Federal Court.
- 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 231:
- I accordingly did direct him how to enter an appearance with the prothonotary and to obtain a copy of the plaint or declaration.
2012, Melissa F. Miller, chapter 39, in Inadvertent Disclosure (The Sasha McCandless Series; Volume 1), e-book edition, Brown Street Books, →ISBN, page 7542:Prothonotary was a pretty impressive-sounding title for a clerk of court, but that’s how the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rolled.
- (Greek Orthodox Church, historical) The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople.
Derived terms